New York: Some well-off New York City residents have paid $100 each for the honour of eating a candlelit holiday dinner with homeless people at a church.
The Rev. Edward Sunderland says he hopes the unusual mealtime coupling of haves and have-nots at St. Bartholomew's Church in Manhattan will become a trend across America.
About 500 people dined at large round tables beneath the church's high ceiling. Chefs from The New York Palace and The Waldorf-Astoria hotels provided roasted turkey, buttered mashed potatoes, red velvet cake, pumpkin cheesecake and other delights. A piano played softly in the background.
Sunderland says the dinner is a chance for people to get to know each other in a safe place and for donors to see who benefits from their charitable instincts.
