BUFFALO (WBEN) - About 14 years ago, Buffalo Dream Center Pastor Eric Johns teamed up with Hearts for the Homeless to bring homeless people from the downtown area to the center for a Christmas Eve Christmas Party.
This event has since become an annual celebration, where hundreds of homeless people are bused in for a free lasagna dinner.
"This time of year is not a happy time for a lot of people - it is for me and for my family - but I know that there's people that Christmas time is really more depressing; they don't have family, they're not surrounded with friends," he said. "What we try to do even with this dinner is to just bring a little bit of hope and life and encouragement to the people, that I know, when they're all finished with their lasagna dinner, are probably headed back out to the streets again."