Thanksgiving dinner will start at 10:30 a.m.
A troop of Lehigh Acres Rotary Club members began today to cook close to 30 turkeys in preparation for Thanksgiving Day’s free dinner for the community.
Mike Buff, chairman of the Rotary project, said the annual dinner is being again held at St. Rafael’s Parish Hall on the church grounds across from Walmart on Lee Blvd.
“We’re expecting a large crowd and we’re ready for them,” Buff said.
“Our men were set to come in to start the actual cooking early Wednesday. Some of them will leave and come back, but there will be people cooking and preparing foods most of the day,” Buff said.
The dinner is free for everyone in the community and will contain all the usual trimmings that go with a Thanksgiving dinner. There will be several volunteers, many who have helped for years, and members of the Rotary Club’s families, all helping to get the dinner together.
Serving time begins at 10:30 a.m. and continues to 2:30 p.m. Rotarians and others volunteering try to eat sometime during the day.
Youngsters will be volunteering to hand out desserts. After your meal, they’ll show up at your table and ask you what you want and there’s usually pies and cakes to choose from. A serving line of volunteers will dip out the many foods along the way.
The dinners started several years ago and the Rotary Club has continued the tradition now for the last few years.
“We want people to realize that this is just not for those who don’t have food, but it for everyone in the community
“It’s our way of serving our friends and neighbors in Lehigh. It’s something that we as Rotarians enjoy doing and will do it for a long time to come,” Buff said.
“Nobody is expected to contribute a dime to the dinner. But there is a jar for anyone who wants to help us out, but again, that is not a requirement,” he said.
Many families come out with their friends and and enjoy themselves … and that is what we want them to do,” he said.
Volunteers will also clean up the pots and pans and make sure the kitchen and Parish Hall are clean before they leave.
Come Christmas Eve, they plan to do it all over again and serve a Community Christmas Day Dinner.
“Several hundred people attend the Thanksgiving Dinner. For Christmas, we see fewer people because they are usually with family and may have left town for the holidays, but we’ll have plenty to heat then, too,” Buff said.