'Noone should be alone' is idea behind dinner

New Ulm's annual

Thanksgiving Day feast draws

hundreds

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Lately, Jim Thomas and his crew of over 100 volunteers have been preparing a Thanksgiving Day feast at St. Mary's Catholic Church for up to 700 guests, and he's never disappointed with the turn-out.

Midway through Thursday's meal, Thomas could confirm that once again over 600 individuals would be eating a traditional Thanksgiving meal, either in the church's lower-level dining area or at home.

"Yes, we deliver," Thomas laughed. "We have delivered over 70 meals, and there's another 65 who called in a 'take-out order.' We even picked up people who had no way of getting down here, brought 'em down here and then took them home again. That way they're not sitting alone at home; instead, they can come down here and socialize."

The idea that there are people who are spending Thanksgiving Day alone who really need to be with others is now the driving force behind the annual event which started 16 years ago.

"The first year we tried to concentrate on the (financially) needy," Thomas recalled. "We soon discovered, however, that you could be the wealthiest person in town, but if you're alone, you're the most needy."

There's a free-will offering box on a table, but no one's checking to see if anyone is making a donation, Thomas added.

"We don't let them sit off by themselves when they're eating dinner here, either."

The tables are numbered, but no reservations are required.

"We do that so we can be sure the tables are all filled, primarily because the dinner is served family-style. So, if we're bringing out food for a full-table, we try to have the tables full, not a few at one table and a few at another. But, we don't want to see people sitting by themselves so we try to get others in there so they can socialize," Thomas explained.

If you think getting a full dinner prepared at home is a chore, it doesn't hold a candle to the tasks that face the Community Dinner volunteers, Thomas said.

"Everything is made from scratch--except for the corn. I have to admit we used canned corn, but there was no way we could do that from scratch," Thomas laughed.

"We had 625 lbs. of turkey, 25 whole turkeys and four turkey loaves. Then, there was 100 bags of dressing--you know, those bags of bread that you buy at the store--120 lbs. of cabbage for the cole slaw, 400 lbs. of squash, 70 lbs. of butter, 60 dozen buns and 90 pies. And we didn't use those prepared whips; we used regular whipped cream."

Then, add to that the carrot sticks, celery, coffee and milk.

"I don't have any idea how much of that we had," Thomas said, shaking his head.

Most of the food preparation was done by a crew of 45 volunteers, working in St. Mary's and Turner Hall kitchens, the night before.

"Then, we were here at 4:30 this morning, preparing the turkeys. We had 75-80 volunteers here today, only a couple of them worked the night before."

The logistics and the amounts required for putting on such a dinner probably won't get much worse because Thomas believes the number of people served has plateaued.

"For the last three years, the numbers have stayed about the same. We were averaging about 50 a year additional prior to that."