Record crowd expected for Salvation Army’s Thanksgiving dinner

A record crowd of 500 is expected to attend The Salvation Army-Manatee’s annual free Thanksgiving Dinner Thursday, which this year has a new time slot of noon to 1 p.m. and also celebrates the community surviving Hurricane Irma.

The traditional all-you-can-eat dinner with all the fixings will be served restaurant-style by community volunteers at 1204 14th St. W., Bradenton, said Salvation Army Major George Patterson, who became leader of the local chapter this past summer.

The Salvation Army’s dinner used to be held from 4 to 6 p.m. but the Army is hoping the earlier time will help get more needy families out and foster more of a family feeling, said Melissa Fernandez, the Army’s volunteer and special events coordinator.

“The time is different this year,” Fernandez said Wednesday. “We just kind of felt we wanted to keep with the tradition and, hopefully, draw out a larger crowd that maybe wanting that warmth and that tradition of a noon meal.”

Due to Hurricane Irma shutting down power in Manatee County for long period of time, many people lost everything they had in their freezers and are still trying to catch up, which leads to a projection of a record crowd, Patterson said Wednesday.

“We have had circumstances this year that have caused disturbances in the lives of more people than we care to think about,” Patterson said. “It’s necessary for us to try and meet those needs so we are preparing for that at this time of Thanksgiving. We are looking forward to, potentially, 500 people tomorrow.”

“I expect the crowd to be a record, due to the circumstances that the major said,” said Thomas Giglio, the Army’s food service manager.

Volunteers galore

On the Tuesday after Labor Day this year the schedule was made available for people to sign up to volunteer to serve the needy at the Army’s Thanksgiving Dinner, which has become a popular activity over the years.

“Usually, by the end of October, it’s completely full,” Fernandez said of the volunteer list. “We welcome 30 volunteers in total, as young as 5-years-old so long as mom and dad are with them. We serve restaurant-style so we have a door host, we have waitresses and waiters. We have a dessert station and the 30 volunteers will give a total of 60 hours on Thanksgiving Day to serve our community.”

Gilgio was nervous earlier this month because the Army lacked enough turkeys to feed a record crowd. The Army put word out into the community and the turkeys flooded in, Giglio said.

“The community really stepped up for us,” said Giglio, who added that the 200 turkeys that were donated are the most in his four years with the Army.

This year’s menu, however, hasn’t changed and will include 300 pounds of stuffing, 275 pounds of mashed potatoes, 225 pounds of green beans, 700 dinner rolls, 125 pies and, of course, turkey and gravy.

“It’s a home-cooked meal, just like you get at home,” Giglio said.

“The neat thing about serving at noon this year is that we will be able to carve the rest of the turkey and put all the leftovers away just like you and I do at home,” Fernandez added. “And come dinner time, like 6 p.m., when our clients who live at the Army have settled in, we will pull all the leftovers out and have a sandwich station with Christmas movies, also just like you or I would do at home.”

This story was originally published November 22, 2017 at 1:27 PM with the headline "Record crowd expected for Salvation Army’s Thanksgiving dinner."