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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Communal Thanksgiving dinners feed thousands in area

Executive chef Brad Case puts a turkey back in the oven at The Fedora restaurant in Coeur d’Alene on Wednesday. Today will mark the restaurant’s fourth-annual free community Thanksgiving dinner. The meal will be served from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Kathy Plonka)

Family, turkey, music and football are on the menu today at The Fedora, a popular restaurant in Coeur d’Alene.

The free Thanksgiving meal for the community began in 2010 when John and Mallory Malee opened the pub and grill on West Kathleen Avenue. It has grown each year, and today the owners expect to serve about 1,200 meals from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“It’s like a big family get-together, like you’re going to your mom and dad’s or grandma and grandpa’s,” John Malee said. “We just have a bigger extended family.”

Communal Thanksgiving dinners have grown in popularity and now feed thousands of people across the Inland Northwest, with many hundreds of volunteers spending part of their holiday to make it happen. They serve not just the homeless or those struggling financially, but also seniors, students and residents who otherwise would spend the day alone.

“We get a lot of elderly people who don’t have family here in town, don’t want to cook a Thanksgiving meal, but would like to have a Thanksgiving dinner,” said Karen Oldmixon, coordinator of the free community Thanksgiving dinner sponsored by St. Aloysius Catholic Church, Gonzaga University and Sodexo Food Services.

Dinner at The Fedora may not attract many who truly live on the street, Malee said. The term “homeless” has a much broader meaning today, he explained.

“Homeless is multiple families living under one roof, where a big meal is a big expense,” he said. “It’s senior citizens (choosing between) a hot meal, medication or utilities. Or it’s also the senior citizens who have lost a spouse and don’t want to be left home alone.”

Everyone is welcome to share in the meal, regardless of their circumstances, said Malee, the former general manager of Cedars Floating Restaurant in Coeur d’Alene and Hot Road Café in Post Falls.

“There’s no criteria whatsoever. Whoever needs a place to go, our doors are open,” he said. “We want to make sure they have a hot meal.”

The restaurant strives to serve everyone who shows up a high-quality meal, said Brad Case, Fedora’s chef.

“It’s prepared fresh. We’re real proud about that,” Case said.

His team is preparing 900 pounds of turkey, 35 gallons of turkey gravy, almost 100 pounds of yams, 250 pounds of green beans and 120 pumpkin pies. Up to 250 meals will come out of the kitchen each hour.

The restaurant’s supplier, Food Services of America, provides a refrigerated truck for overflow food storage. Emerald Cleaning and Linen Service donates all the linens and uniforms. Others in the community give money to help cover the dinner’s $7,000 cost. Fedora hosts the event under the nonprofit tax status of ElderHelp of North Idaho in order to attract contributions.

United Way recruits about 75 volunteers who come in for two-hour shifts to greet and seat guests, help prepare and dish up meals, and clean up afterward.

“Really what makes this event is the wonderful volunteers. Without them we could not execute this,” Malee said.

The restaurant provides live music, TVs tuned to NFL games and an area for kids to color pictures.

The Thanksgiving meal is getting so large, it’s about to outgrow the restaurant, which seats 209, Case said. They may look for a larger venue to continue the tradition.

After today’s five-hour service ends, the restaurant staff brings in their families and friends to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner there. “It really has brought a lot of us closer together,” Malee said.

He added, “We’re thankful that we were able to open a business four years ago when the economy was at rock bottom. We’re blessed and thankful that the community supports us. This is our way of giving back.”

For the volunteers, too

This is the 12th year of the free Thanksgiving dinner in the Globe Room at Cataldo Hall on the Gonzaga campus. Organizers expect to serve 400 to 500 meals from noon to 2 p.m. today.

It’s a traditional dinner with salad and rolls followed by turkey breast, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables and cranberry sauce, plus pumpkin or apple pie.

More than 140 volunteers are involved, from setting up the dining room to serving tables to spending time with those being served, said Oldmixon, the coordinator from St. Aloysius.

“So we actually have volunteers who eat a meal at each table with our guests, and it’s usually a couple,” she said. “A lot of our seniors from our parish and outside of our parish table host.”

New this year, 25 students from the Newtech Skill Center’s criminal justice program will take on the dishwashing, busing and cleanup chores as a community service project.

“I never have a lack of volunteers. They’ll call me right up to Thanksgiving Day,” Oldmixon said. “It’s as much for our volunteers as it is for the people who come for the meal. There’s a lot of great people in this town who just want a chance to give back, and so we try to put as many of them to work as we can.”

To make sure homeless people can attend, a bus runs between Cataldo Hall and the House of Charity and Union Gospel Mission shelters. Also, Gonzaga advertises the meal on its reader boards on Ruby and Hamilton streets to reach additional homeless people.

The meal costs about $3,100 and is funded almost entirely from donations from St. Aloysius Parish members, Oldmixon said.

All ages turn out

Southside Christian Church oversees a traditional turkey dinner today at Mid-City Concerns in downtown Spokane on West Second Avenue. Seniors are served first, at 11:30 a.m., followed by the general public at noon until 3 p.m. Up to 400 meals are served when the weather is mild.

In recent years the demographics of those who show up for the meal have changed, said Carl Perron, the coordinator.

“The last four or five years, with the economy, we have seen more families,” Perron said. “When I first started doing this, other than the seniors, it was predominantly (adult) males. We see all ages now.”