Clients at Halifax’s Souls Harbour Rescue Mission had a special Christmas meal served up on Saturday, all thanks to the generosity of a local restaurant, and a team of hardworking volunteers.

Souls Harbour is usually pretty busy at the lunch hour at this time of year. But on Saturday, there were some new faces in the rescue mission’s kitchen.

“The staff are excited,” said Roger Thurbide, owner of Café Chianti. “My chef was thrilled to be able to put this together. Chef Graham worked all day yesterday prepping with his staff, and he was in this morning at 7:00 a.m. to make sure everything was just right.”

The team from Café Chianti whipped up a three course spread; local seafood chowder, and lamb shank with grilled vegetables, with tiramisu for desert.

“I liked it all,” says Don Whitt. “I liked the shrimp chowder, because I like chowder, and I grew up on lamb and I haven’t had it for a little while, so it was awesome!”

“I liked everything,” said Eddie McNamara. “You can’t rate one part from the next, it was all delicious.”

Whitt has been a client of Souls Harbour for eight years, but says this Christmas meal was extra special.

“On Christmas eve, I’ve got to go in for my first cancer treatment in the morning. So what am I doing for Christmas? I’m at the cancer clinic,” says Whitt.

Saturday’s meal was a little different from the usual fare at Souls Harbour.

“We’ll do spaghettis, pastas, casseroles,” says Ryan Walter Payne, the executive chef at Souls Harbour. “We do chowder once in a while, so that’s kind of nice. A lot of mac and cheese type things, things that will feed a lot of people.”

But Payne says he is more than happy to turn his kitchen over to the visitors.

“As long as I know far in advance, it’s usually pretty easy. I just make sure the kitchen is clean and ready. I’d like to see it happen more often,” says Payne.

A similar meal at Café Chianti would cost around $60. But Thurbide and his crew are happy to give these plates away, to a group of people who really appreciate it.

“It’s probably going to be the best day of my Holiday,” says Thurbide.

A special holiday meal that filled the stomachs- and hearts- of all involved.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Emily Baron Cadloff.