The volunteers too came with experience, such as helping at other causes such as the Limitless Hope food caravans in Clive Square, although, contrary to a recent Hawke's Bay Today report, that charity was not directly involved in the Community Christmas Lunch.
"I think there are people who perceived that the Community Christmas Lunch is for the homeless," Mr Gaudin says.
"We call it a Community Christmas Lunch because it is for people who have no one to spend their Christmas with, or nowhere to go.
"People who for one reason or another are not able to spend Christmas with their family," he says, noting there are many people in the community who are displaced and find Christmas a hard time to deal with.
In a little irony, there have been some who for most of the time are required to stay at home, or perhaps conditions of their liberty mean there are family and friends with whom they cannot associate.
But he says: "We don't go into why people are there, so it's not about making any judgments. It's also not about getting everyone on to this good Christian lifestyle. We don't go brow-beating anyone around to a particular way of thinking."
The early planning will go into co-ordinating the usual sponsorship and other support so that the masses can be fed, with at least 35 volunteers needed on the day, something he thought would be a bigger problem than it turned out to be when he moved from being a bit-player five years ago to the organiser of the event last year.
For the most recent celebration the Rotary Club of Greenmeadows donated presents to hand out to the guests. "For many of these," Mr Gaudin observed at the time, "it's the only present that they will get."
A Napier City Council fund contributed the seeding money for the event, Pak'nSave Tamatea through their suppliers donated meat and vegetables, New World Greenmeadows supermarket donated grocery items, and the Salvation Army's foodbank came to the party with product, along with providing the venue.
Donations were also received from members of the community and Nimons provided a vehicle for pick-ups.
Their own role stemmed from their involvement in a fundraising dinner for the Inner Wheel Club of Ahuriri, the Rotary women's service movement which Joanne has been involved with for about 14 years, including becoming New Zealand president.
It led to them being asked if they could help with the Christmas lunch.
He says: "The first year we thought we'd see what it was like. But we just get so much fun out of it, seeing the pleasure it gives to the people, and it gives meaning to what we believe in supporting other people. We look forward to it."
