WARREN - The Warren Family Mission hosted a free Christmas dinner for the community Saturday, Dec. 20.

Warren Family Mission is a non-profit, faith-based shelter and kitchen that also gives out free clothing to those in need.

The dinner served guests traditional Christmas foods such as ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and rolls. The dinner included cookies and cakes as well.

Director of public relations Dominic Mararri says the Mission brought in over 400 volunteers to organize the dinner.

"The need is great, but the community's generosity is even greater," he said.

The volunteers delivered 1804 meal orders that came in from across the Mahoning Valley before the dinner began.

The dinner itself served 353 in-house meals and 537 to-go meals for a total of 2,674 Christmas meals according to the Mission.

Santa Claus was also at the dinner to take pictures and pass out gifts to children 12 and under. Face painting was also available.

Mararri says the dinner means a lot to the guests and the volunteers.

"They have traditions year after year, holiday after holiday, to come back and serve our community, and I think that's what it's all about," he said

Peppi McGhee says he stumbled upon the free Christmas dinner as he drove through downtown Warren and planned to bring some meals back to his community.

"It's not much, but you can give a plate to someone else so they can eat too," he said.

The Warren Family Mission's kitchen is open Monday through Saturday to serve free meals to the community from 12 p.m. to 12:30 p.m..