Hundreds of students at a south Edmonton school were treated to a special Christmas dinner on Thursday.

About 450 students at L.Y. Cairns School feasted on 25 turkeys, 24 kg of corn, 42 kg of dressing, 35 kg of potatoes, 20 litres of gravy, 40 kg of mandarin oranges and 500 ice cream cups, during the school’s annual Christmas dinner sponsored entirely by school staff.

“They’ve been cooking a lot of food for a lot of days, that’s for sure,” said L. Y. Cairns Principal Bruce Miller.

The meal is prepared with help from students in the foods program, and school resource officers from the Edmonton Police Service were also on hand to help the 65 staff members serve.

Cst. Stacy Miskolczi only recently started as a school resource officer at L.Y. Cairns in September, but has been invited to come serve Christmas dinner at the school for the last several years.

“I love it. It’s my favourite time of the year to come and serve these kids,” Miskolczi said.

“Especially now that I’m in the school, I know them, I know a lot of these kids and I know some of the backgrounds they come from.”

Along with the meal, students also sing Christmas carols, got a visit from Santa, and took part in a dance.

It’s an event that students say bring them joy during the holidays.

Thursday was Kassy Charlesworth’s fifth Christmas dinner at the school. She says her favourite part of the dinner is how it brings together the whole school.

“It’s fun because you sit with your friends and your teachers and you talk while you’re having good food,” Charlesworth said.

Mitchell Nelson said his favourite part of the dinners is seeing the police officers serve.

“It’s a good experience to see all of them at once,” he said.

L.Y. Cairns School offers junior and high school students with mild cognitive learning needs specialized programming.

Staff have been coming together for the annual Christmas meal for nearly 40 years.

“It’s a long-standing tradition. It’s a pretty unique event. It’s a gift from our staff,” Miller said.

“It brings the whole school together. It’s a great way to end the year for sure. It’s a Christmas tradition.”

With files from Susan Amerongen