Community dinner successful thanks to collaboration
The coordinators of the community Thanksgiving dinner in Butler live by the motto that they don’t turn anybody away — “no donation, no volunteer and nobody goes hungry.” So the abundance of volunteers crowding the First United Methodist Church on North Street on Thursday allowed everyone who attended the annual dinner to get the royal treatment.
Because as longtime community dinner coordinator Kelly Zaccari said, the volunteers are trying to give everyone something they can be grateful for.
“We want this to be a very special dinner for them,” said Mason Menell, one of the dinner’s coordinators. “We greet them at the door with, ‘Happy Thanksgiving, thanks for coming out.’ Then we have people coming through with desserts in their hands, drinks and trays, then we’ll seat them.”
The community Thanksgiving dinner has been a tradition in Butler for 34 years, having gotten its start at the Cubs hall and moving to cafeterias in All Saints Parish churches around the city.
The First United Methodist Church was crowded with people Thursday, where the meal took place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Menell said volunteers prepared enough food for 1,600 people — an average crowd for the Thanksgiving meal — which was made possible by numerous individuals, community organizations and businesses that donated.
Throughout the morning, Menell repeated that collaboration is the key to making the event successful, because without donations of food from community organizations, the group might not be able to feed 1,600 people each year.
“We got donations from both American Legion posts, the French and Belgian Club; we had donations given to us by businesses like Totalus and pickleball leagues,” Zaccari said. “So it's really like a community effort.”
Menell said meal prep began a week ago, when he and other volunteers began receiving and preparing turkeys. The group of volunteers prepped the turkey early Thursday morning, which helped get the portions and to-go meals ready for the rush, which started as soon as the doors opened.
“I cooked 82 turkeys to get 1,620 portions, and the first batches were done in about four hours in the convection oven, then it took four hours to get them ready,” Menell said.
Volunteers rotated in and out of the kitchen, dining hall and delivery area throughout the day, with Menell saying he lost count of how many volunteers there were. Despite some chaos in the kitchen and the occasional tiff, Menell said he and everyone involved with the dinner are like family because of their collaboration.
“Some of these people are my Thanksgiving family, I only see them this week,” Menell said.
While he always hopes fewer and fewer people each year need help obtaining food for Thanksgiving, Menell said coordinating the dinner is rewarding, and making sure everyone has what they need is a group effort.
“It takes a village, a community,” Menell said. “We can’t do it without everybody.”
