It’s not December yet, but it felt a lot like Christmas at the Bay Street Armouries Sunday, as about 1,000 people sat down to turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

Many of the people at the Mustard Seed Christmas Dinner aren’t used to regular meals, let alone ones served to them, finished off with pumpkin pie and cranberry cheesecake made by chefs from the Fairmont Empress Hotel.

“And they clean up, too!” laughed Emily James, attending with her three-year-old daughter Marie.

The mother and daughter are new in Victoria and have struggled to find an affordable place to live. They’ve finally found a room, and James is hopeful she’ll get a job as a cleaner soon, but said the competition even for $10-an-hour jobs is difficult. There’s also the struggle to find child care.

But last night, she put it aside and enjoyed the dinner with new friends she met at the long tables filled with people of all ages.

The annual dinner — this was its 22nd year — is open to those in need, from the working poor to the homeless.

James and her daughter are part of an increasing demographic in homelessness. There are more and more children that are hungry, homeless or on the verge of it, said Mustard Seed pastor Chris Riddell.

He has seen about 1,700 children with their parents using the Mustard Seed and the food and services it offers each month, up from about 1,200 a month last year.

There’s been an increase in the number of senior citizens needing help too — about 25 per cent more this year. It’s part of an overall increase in the need for services.

The Mustard Seed sees 7,200 people a month needing food, up from 5,000 a month last year.

“The increase overall is disturbing, but the increase in children and senior citizens is really frightening,” Riddell said. It’s likely the cost of living and the lack of affordable housing that is causing the increase, he said.

Couple that with the Mustard Seed’s cash donations being down this year, and it’s troubling for the organization that well knows the ongoing and growing regional problem of homelessness.

Its donations are down by about $200,000 this year. Each dollar translates to 2.5 pounds of food, so that’s 500,000 fewer pounds of food the church has been able to buy.

The most helpful thing people can do is give a cash donation (which is tax deductible), rather than a food one, Riddell said.

“We have so much more buying power with money because of our suppliers. We can get a lot more for the money, and that way, too, we can buy what we need when it’s needed.”

That food-buying power was clear on Sunday, as people left with full stomachs. They also were given a goodie bag of candy, as well as mandarin oranges, when they left.

“This is my breakfast,” said Michel Curfodeau, who has lived on the street for 10 years, carefully packing the two oranges in his pack. The 55-year-old man has an 80-pound backpack, neatly packed with everything from his two pairs of socks to a coffee maker and a tent.

“I’m organized. I have to be,” he says. He lives outside all year, going to the Okanagan in the summer to pick fruit and then travelling throughout Canada. He hitchhiked from Labrador to Victoria in 10 days.

Brian O’Donnell, 38, used to be homeless but now has a room, though it has no kitchen.

“This dinner is great. Great food. Wonderful people.”

He and his friend Dave have attended a few years now, and say it and the Mustard Seed are bright lights in a homeless world, as is the library. Dave was packing a science-fiction book, taken out on his friend’s card.

“I read a book a day. Victoria is a hard city but these kind of things make it a bit better.”

kwestad@tc.canwest.com