HANNIBAL, MO. -- For more than two decades, Michael Ginsburg and his wife Pam have fed people on Christmas Day.
They've opened their restaurant, LulaBelle's, to provide a free holiday meal to anyone who wants one.
"It's not easy to get a meal on Christmas whether you're willing to pay for it or not because there is nobody that's open. So we found over the years we do, invariably someone travelling will stumble in and expect a check to be presented and of course we don't," Michael Ginsberg said.
Ginsberg also said they'll prepare more then 700 meals for the day and it includes your traditional Christmas menu of ham, au gratin potatoes, green bean casserole and rolls. He said they'll serve about 150 in the restaurant and about 550 meals will be delivered.
This year, Ginsberg is working with the Java Jive coffee shop to bake hams for the Christmas day lunch.
He said they'll bake the hams and by 9 a.m. the meals that are going to be delivered will be headed out the door.
For those people who want to have the Christmas meal at the restaurant, LulaBelle's will be open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
"It's really a community effort and I do refer to it as our community event we do depend, it is an all volunteer effort so everybody that is fed is fed because we have people that come and help," Ginsberg said.
Ginsberg added that nearly everyone who is on the Hannibal Nutrition Center list is included for delivery that day and even paramedics, police officers and the railroad bridge tender will all be offered a meal on Christmas day to make sure they're included in the holiday no matter what.
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