Year after year, Helen and David Esdaile banded together with volunteers to bring cheer to the local community; offering a free Christmas lunch for people without family to share at Nowra’s Showground.

This year Mr Esdaile said they had to cancel due to lack of volunteers and his wife’s health.

“We had a meeting to see who our available volunteers were and we just found the majority of them were not able to do it this year,” he said.

“Helen has also been ill and I’m tired, so we were just not prepared to put it on this year.

“Unless someone else puts their hand up, it’s not going to happen.”

Mr Esdaile said he searched to find someone willing to take on the task, but to little avail.

It all started in their home with 12 people and eventually grew to the Nowra Showground pavilion with most lunches attracting around 140 diners and about 20 volunteers.

“The very first year we decided to do this we took it on because our charity organisation decided they weren’t going to host one,” he said.

“After that it just ballooned and each year we have averaged around 110 dining guests.

“We had hoped someone would be able to take it on this year, but I doubt anyone will now at this late stage.”

Mrs Esdaile co-ordinates subsidised grocery outlets at East Nowra and Bomaderry and assists individuals in a variety of ways.

She said Christmas charity was part of her upbringing.

“Every Christmas after church my parents would invite all the itinerant fruit pickers back to our place for Christmas dinner.”

But this year Mr Esdaile said something had to give.

The lunch was usually of a traditional sort made from donated foods and cooked and served by volunteers – a Christmas feast with roast chickens, pork and hams and roasted vegetables.

This year the many people without a family due to illness, divorce, age or distance who would have attended the lunch will be without.

Anyone interested in taking on the task to host this year’s Christmas Charity Lunch please contact the South Coast Register office on 4421 9123 or email journalist Jessica Long on jessica.long@fairfaxmedia.

com.au.

Nowra City Church will host a free Christmas dinner for the isolated and disadvantaged.

The dinner will be held at 5.30pm on Christmas Eve at Nowra City Church at 167 McMahons Road, North Nowra.

Any volunteers interested in food preparation, serving and cleaning up are asked to contact 4421 4602.

South Coast Register