A local pastor who spends his holiday season each year reaching out to the homeless and families in need wrapped up his month-long mission on Christmas Eve by serving hundreds of lasagna dinners.
Pastor Eric Johns of the Buffalo Dream Center hosted the dinner in his Lafayette Avenue church on Buffalo's West Side, after spending many years serving these dinners downtown. Shuttles were arranged to move some downtown clients to the church. But the neighborhood in which his church is located is plentiful with people in need, he added.
"Right in the neighborhood where the Dream Center sits is a community with over 70 different languages," Pastor Johns said. "There's people from all over the world, refugees that have settled here and a lot of them are in need. We've already had a Boxes of Love distribution site here and served, I think, 320 families that day."
The care packages are, as he sees it, a power way to say "welcome." Pastor Johns adds that many of those who have received the Boxes of Love are not Christians, yet people in need.
This year's Christmas Eve dinner marked a milestone for one of the partners. Hearts for the Homeless first served meals to the homeless 25 years ago on Christmas Eve.
