School Stays Open For Feast Bryan Elementary Invites Hungry To Free Meal

Sorry, kids. Bryan Elementary School won’t close for the Thanksgiving holiday after all.

Bryan’s doors will open Thanksgiving morning, and its kitchens will bubble and steam as usual. But don’t go in unless you’re hungry.

Coeur d’Alene School District employees are throwing the feast to end all feasts in Bryan’s cafeteria, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and everyone is invited.

“We’re just hoping people will come,” said Patty Breuchaud, who runs the district’s after-school care program.

Breuchaud dreamed up the feast on a beautiful day last summer.

“It was so great out and I was feeling so fortunate and blessed,” she said. “I thought it’d be neat to do something for people facing tough times.”

She polled her colleagues to see if she could raise enough donations of money, food and labor to serve several hundred people. No problem.

“I’m encouraged and renewed by the support that’s out there,” she said with a smile.

District administrators and the school board heartily endorsed the idea. School board trustee Vern Newby even volunteered his family to work at the feast.

Local supermarkets and restaurants, food distributors and entertainment companies signed on. One teacher began collecting books to give all children who attend the feast. She also scheduled people to read to the children.

Linda Turner, who heads the district’s food services, coordinated food. She decided on 275 pounds of turkey and 700 pumpkin tarts, as well as hundreds of pounds of potatoes, dozens of cans of yams, cranberry sauce and coffee and a vat of gravy.

“Holding it at a school, we’ll get more people than we would if it were somewhere else,” Turner said this week. She’s counting on 600 to 700 diners.

Bryan is the perfect location because it’s in midtown Coeur d’Alene, Breuchaud said.

Nearly two-thirds of the children who attend the school qualify for the federal free-and-reduced lunch program. The surrounding area is home to many retired people on fixed incomes who may want company as well as a decent meal on Thanksgiving, she said.

With a week to go, Breuchaud and Turner still need turkey roasts (no bones, please), cranberry sauce and people to help clean after the feasts. They also need about $300 to cover the cost of groceries that weren’t donated.

And they need it all by the end of the day Friday.

“I’m a little nervous about the whole thing,” Breuchaud said. “But I’m so pleased with the response.”

To donate to the feast, call Turner at 667-7469.

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