Longhorn thanks community by serving free holiday meal
A longtime Spokane restaurant served up some Thanksgiving hospitality for about 180 low-income residents.
The Longhorn Barbecue on North Argonne Road offered the no-cost buffet dinner Thursday to invited guests with the support of West Valley Kiwanis. Longhorn employees wanted to help people, plus thank the community for 50 years of support, a manager said.
“I just can’t imagine people not having a nice meal, something they can really enjoy,” said Michael Noble, a Longhorn chef manager.
About 15 restaurant employee volunteers and nine with the Kiwanis group planned to serve people from 2 to 5 p.m. Kiwanis member Red Weiler had contacted Spokane Valley churches and agencies to find individuals struggling financially this holiday.
“We gave them invitations through these organizations, so we don’t even know their names,” Weiler said. “We gave 180 invitations (per person). We started with how many the Longhorn thought they could handle.”
Weiler said some of the groups he contacted included the Spokane Valley Methodist Church, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Spokane Valley Community Center and Food Bank, West Valley School District counselors, Evergreen Club, and the St. Anne’s Children and Parenting Alone program.
“Many organizations don’t do a meal on Thanksgiving Day,” Weiler added. “For the people at Longhorn who are doing the cooking and serving the food, for them to give up time on their Thanksgiving Day, that’s pretty nice.”
Weiler planned to be at the restaurant along with other Kiwanis members to help clean tables, wash dishes and be part of the overall cleaning crew. “I think we have about five members of our club and family, so about nine people total.”
Noble and other restaurant employees decided to hold the meal for the first time this year with the support of Longhorn owners Bill Miller and Randy Ingraham. General manager Josh Unser also played a major part in planning.
“The people we order food from, the main one being Food Services of America or their brokers, are donating the food,” Noble said. “That allows us to do this.”
Noble added that it’s been a tradition for customers to bring in turkeys a few days before Thanksgiving and have the restaurant smoke or barbecue them. The customers then come in Thanksgiving morning to pick up their turkeys and a few side dishes.
“I thought, shoot, we’re here anyway; we might as well extend it. We thought it might be a good idea to do a little dinner for families who can’t afford a nice dinner. Also, we’re celebrating 50 years next year, so it’s another thing we can do to give back to the community because they’ve supported us for so long.
“A lot of employees are volunteering their time and they wanted to help serve the food.”
He said that Longhorn started in 1956 in downtown Spokane and then moved to Airway Heights two years later. The Valley location started operating in the 1970s.
Noble said the Longhorn and West Valley Kiwanis have teamed up several times in community support. He has worked with Weiler at the Longhorn booth at the Spokane County Fair to help Kiwanis raise money. The restaurant also supports a St. Patrick’s Day fund-raiser for the Evergreen Club and the West Valley Kiwanis’ Fiddlers Workshop program that provides free violins and lessons to children.
“Red is an amazing guy,” Noble said. “I knew he’d be the guy to get this going in terms of making sure we had all the families coming in. We hope to do it again.”