No place like 'Home for the Holidays'

’Tis the season for giving.

On Christmas Day, Perabell Food Bar in Patchogue Village will open its doors and host Home for the Holidays, the annual event that provides free meals and toys to those in need.

This year’s event has a “unique twist,” Perabell co-owner Scott Campbell said: it’s grab-and-go style. In place of a formal dinner event, community members will simply drive or walk up to the Main Street restaurant, pick up their reserved meals and toys as needed, and be on their “merry” way.

In an effort to maintain social distancing measures during the pandemic, the team is taking meal reservations this year.

As of Dec. 23, the team had 360 reservations, Campbell said. It’s more than a year's past, he said, and believes COVID-19 has caused the influx.

Home for the Holidays organizer Peter Picataggio said he was “amazed” at how giving the community has been this year in preparation for the event, despite the circumstances. Over $6,000 was donated for the campaign in less than one week, Picataggio said.

This year, the number of restaurants involved was limited to some longtime donors, like The Tap Room, Perabell, Harbor Crab Co., and Cricket's in Sayville, Picataggio said. Since many restaurants are struggling financially, he said he didn’t want to push for free meals this year. Many were eager to provide the dishes anyway.

“I just couldn’t come up with the words to ask them to donate,” Picataggio said. “I don’t know of a restaurant that isn’t suffering right now… I called them for donations and the words that came out of my mouth were, ‘I’d like to buy.’”

Picataggio, who organizes the campaign with wife Adriene and mother Roberta Aquiar, said the group received an abundance of reservations for kids this year, many of which came from the South Country Central School District.

“The number one thing is that we want as many families as we can,” Picataggio said. “I will help everybody, but I want as many families as we can get.”

A fourth-generation Patchogue resident, Campbell said he loves participating as a means to give back to his community.

“I have two boys, and we kind of give up our Christmas to do this,” Campbell said. “But it really helps us appreciate everything we have.”

The number of participating volunteers has also been reduced in an effort to follow safety guidelines and social distancing measures, Picataggio said.

This year’s menu includes chicken fingers, baked ziti, prime rib and turkey. Reservations can still be made.

Started in 2008, Home for the Holidays was previously hosted at the United Methodist Church of Christ and the Jayne-Lattin VFW Post 2913., both in Patchogue.