Dinner will have modified format

To the editor:

Thanksgiving Day is fast approaching and the committee for the 30th annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner has been hard at work since early October.

One of the few constants during this year is the need for continued flexibility and caution. As we have all been painfully aware, it has been quite an ordeal trying to create a sense of normalcy in a year that is unlike any we have experienced. Even though the temptation to skip this year’s dinner and wait until next year was strong, the committee unanimously agreed the dinner should go on.

We will provide pre-packaged meals to those in the community who come to the parking lot of the Asbury United Methodist Church on Thanksgiving Day from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. to pick up a meal for themselves or the homebound. Using a no-contact drive-through delivery, the food will be placed in your vehicle and can then be taken to your own home. No advance reservations are needed or accepted; simply come to the church during the time frame and we will have volunteers to load it.

Since local health restrictions have discouraged our delivery to the homebound, we will ask you to be on the lookout for neighbors or shut-ins who might be alone and take care of their needs, too.

Although the fun and fellowship of eating with other members of the community will have to wait until next year, we invite the community to share in this holiday tradition in a format that has been altered to accommodate safety and health concerns.

As our chair, Carol Smith, said, this year we are lovingly serving up “thankfulness and hope.”

The welcome mat is out to our community.

Even if you are not part of this event, we hope your family shares a joyous and peace-filled day.

Dolphus Stephens

Community Thanksgiving Dinner Committee