‘I would not be anywhere else on Christmas Day,’ says volunteer at annual feast

Joe Woolfork looked over the crowd of people Tuesday morning waiting for a meal at the 23rd annual Anita Ponder and Friends Christmas Feast and reminisced a little bit.

He had a different perception than most.

“I was once in the same line ... I changed my life,” Woolfork said as a steady stream of people filled Terminal Station in downtown Macon. “I’ve been clean (of drugs and alcohol) for 24 years. ... I try to give back now.”

Woolfork oversees the ordering and preparation of the food that feeds the hundreds of people who come to the event. In his regular job, Woolfork is an executive chef with Sage Dining Services at First Presbyterian Day School in Macon.

Ponder, a former Macon city councilwoman who now lives in Texas, comes back to her hometown at Christmas to visit family and friends and to sponsor this annual event, she said. It not only includes a free meal with all the traditional fixings, but also includes new and used clothes for adults and children, bikes and other gifts for children, free hair cuts and health screenings.

This was the second year Matthew Dronner Jr. brought his Macon-based Gametime Entertainment trailer that has eight TVs so children of all ages can play a variety of video games. Music inside Terminal Station was provided by Party-Man Productions. A bouncy house was added this year.

“We don’t start serving the meal until 12,” Ponder said Tuesday morning. “But we start setting up at 8, and a lot of the people don’t really have any place to go, so they start showing up at 8 because they know the doors are open. ... Some of them have kids, so we have something for the kids to do.”

Before the meal was served at Terminal Station, hundreds of individual meals were delivered to senior citizens around the city, she said.

Ponder couldn’t walk from one end of the terminal to the other without getting stopped several times to be greeted by volunteers and those there for lunch. She had a friendly greeting and hug for each one.

For the past 10 years, Woolfork has been volunteering for Ponder’s Christmas feast, and he knows what it takes to feed a crowd that usually swells to over a 1,000 for the day.

He started getting things ready Monday, making sure the turkeys were sliced and preparing some of the other food. Then he got up early Christmas morning.

“I went in about 2 this morning, cooking the yams and green beans,” said Woolfork, 70.

A lot of food had to be prepared, including 12 cases of turkey, 10 cases each of ham, yams and green beans and 30 gallons of gravy along with other sides and desserts.

The undertaking requires a lot of volunteers who put in a lot of hours to make the event come together, Ponder said. This year about 225-250 volunteers were involved. In the kitchen Tuesday, Anissa Jones, the newest member of the Macon Water Authority, was helping fill large containers of food before they were taken out to be served. She has been volunteering at least 12 years, she said.

In a separate room, Leroy Jarrell, co-owner of Just Right Barber Shop on Log Cabin Drive at Hillcrest Road, and Darius Brown were giving free hair cuts.

Jarrell said he’s been offering his services at the event about 10-11 years, cutting “at least 30 heads” each time.

“I would not be anywhere else on Christmas Day,” he said. “I want them to see this in the spirit of giving.”