Bringing our community together: Thanksgiving Dinner

For the second year, Penns Valley Youth Center and Penns Valley Community Church joined together to to provide a Thanksgiving dinner for our community. This year, despite the 5 inches of snow that accumulated through out the day, we served over 200 people in the gym at the Old Gregg School Community Center and packed up over 50 to-go meals. The gym was full of delicious aromas and the sound of friends and neighbors greeting each other. What brings people together better than food?!

The day began around 9am with setting up the tables and organizing the place settings. Once that task was complete, the preparations for cooking began! Soon the kitchen was all a bustle with volunteers making stuffing and all of the other delicious foods that were to be served that evening.

The calm before the storm (although the literal snowstorm was still in effect), came at lunchtime when the volunteers had a break to eat lunch and tell stories of the olden days. It was an amazing time of fellowship as multiple generations sat around the table and shared.

Once 4pm rolled around, it was back to the hurried work of finishing the food preparation, cutting deserts, and filling drink dispensers. Teens from the youth center helped with this work, and made signs for the entry way, as well. Everything was set and the doors were ready to be opened. A few people showed up early but we were happy to welcome them. Once we gave thanks to God for the food, the line for the food formed and the rest is history.

We are so grateful for all that was provided for this meal by the generous people of Penns Valley. We had a little left over and blessed the volunteers who worked tirelessly that day. Thank you to everyone who was involved and we look forward to doing it again next year! We love Penns Valley!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.