SCRANTON, Pa. — Most restaurants are closed on Christmas Day, but that wasn't the case for Backyard Ale House in Scranton.
Anyone and everyone were invited to walk through, grab breakfast, and anything else they might need this Christmas.
"You're gonna get takeout food, you can walk around and pick out clothes, toys, socks, gloves," explained James Bodnar, head chef at Backyard Ale House and organizer for the event. "We have food, Krispy Kreme donuts. We have coffee, pretty much a little bit everything for everybody."
People who stopped in thought it was just a breakfast giveaway and were thrilled to be given the opportunity to pick up things like toys or clothing too. All donations were collected by the staff of the restaurant.
"Very, very cool and it's very beneficial to a lot of people especially during the pandemic and I'm grateful for it," said Amy Mussari of Scranton.
"Oh, I was amazed because, yeah, we all need this stuff and it was it made me extremely happy to see that, you know, there's other things that we can get that we need. On this Christmas season," said Judith Herie of Scranton.
This is the first time this event has been hosted at the Backyard Ale House, normally it's held at the University of Scranton, but this year it had to be moved.
"They weren't having it this year due to COVID," explained Bodnar. "So I decided, well, why can't I do it here? So I brought up the idea to the owners and the owners instantly said yes and it all worked out."
"That is an amazing blessing for this family and the owners of this establishment to do this for, for all of us. Words are so hard to say it's just such a major blessing for this family to come out and to do this for all of us," added Herie.