Port Elgin’s annual Salute to Seniors Supper is being cancelled this year for the first time in 45 years after no volunteers stepped up to take over the meal preparation.

The event was started in a private home to show appreciation to seniors in the area and the annual supper has served a full turkey dinner to as many as 300 people a year.

But Linda Hailey-Trenholm, who has been volunteering at the supper for 38 years, said no one stepped forward to take over the cooking duties this year.

She said the decision to cancel the supper is a real loss for the community's seniors.

“The one time a year they may see their friends or their neighbours, a lot of people are shut in and we don't realize that,” she said.

“And to me it was a time, it started the Christmas season. Some of them, they would see their Christmas tree, their only Christmas tree that they would see for the whole Christmas season.”

Mary Goodwin, a long-time diner, said it's a shame the event isn't happening this year.

''It's great because you get to meet people that you haven't seen for a long time cause everybody tries to come from way back everywhere,” Goodwin said.

The numbers of seniors turning out to the annual supper has dropped to 200 in recent years.

Hailey-Trenholm said people were still willing to help but no one was ready to take over the meal preparation.

“We felt it was time the younger crowd came in, new blood so to speak,” she said.

She said the community was warned previously that the lack of volunteers was becoming a problem for the supper.

“The seniors’ supper as we know it may cease to exist if they couldn't convince their children and grandchildren to come forward," Hailey-Trenholm said.

While the supper is cancelled this year, Hailey-Trenholm said she’s hopeful the Salute to Seniors Supper will be revived next year.