Browns host the town on Thanksgiving (11/23/05)

One day a year, warm pizza isn’t the first thing you savor when you walk into the Pizza King in Geneva.

Instead. the mouth-watering aroma of turkey, ham, sweet potatoes and all the trimmings of a bountiful Thanksgiving meal greet visitors to the long-time Geneva eatery.

For more than 20 years, the business has opened its doors on Thanksgiving day to area residents — whether its someone who is alone or visitors with a dozen family members — to share the Thanksgiving meal.

Some 23 years ago, Ruth Brown, a now-retired teacher from the South Adams School district, and her husband Willis, a now-retired employee of Franklin Electric in Bluffton, decided to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for the senior citizen residents of Limberlost Apartments.

Gathering all the ingredients for a traditional dinner, Mrs. Brown “grabbed a couple of women” to volunteer and made dinner at the couple’s home on Shackley Street.

Willis delivered the 25 to 30 meals to the welcoming residents.

“One guy came out with tears in his eyes,” Mrs. Brown recalled, “and told Willis, ‘I haven’t tasted food like that since my mother died.’”

The couple’s mission was obvious: there was a need.

Then-owners of Pizza King Ron and Connie Lunn got word of the Brown’s generous offerings.

“I wanted to do that, too,” Connie Lunn told Mrs. Brown about wanting to serve a holiday meal, but added she didn’t know how to go about starting such a project. She offered the Pizza King establishment to the couple for use for the following year and opened it to the public.

When the Lunns sold Pizza King a few years ago to Nick and Cheryl Minnich, it was with the understanding that the Thanksgiving meal would continue be a tradition at the site.

The first year dinner was served at the Pizza King, Mrs. Brown and volunteers cooked and baked everything in their homes — except potatoes — transported it to the site, and shared it with some 100 eager residents including those who were homebound.

The tradition took hold and last year some 300 meals were served to residents from around the area. Some have come from Preble, some from Portland, and many from the near-Geneva area. And delivery to homebound has also taken volunteers throughout the area.

“We’ve even delivered in Portland,” said long-time volunteer Richard Thompson.

Deliveries are still made to the senior citizens’ apartment where the tradition was born.

Finding generous donors for the special meal hasn’t been a problem for the Browns. Boneless turkeys are purchased from Cooper Farms near Fort Recovery where they are bought as a “buy one get one free” transaction numbering 14 turkeys this year. Additionally, area groceries donate bread products, and other area businesses provide a variety of dishes including cranberry salad, and green beans. Pies are purchased from a Wick’s bakery and other expenses include tableware, and condiments.

“We’ve modernized,” Willis said laughing, about the pre-cooked turkey that comes in a bag designed to allow it to just be reheated.

“When we first started we’d ask, ‘Who can bake a turkey?’” Ruth said, repeating Willis’s thoughts about how modern the process has become.

While some of the food items are still cooked at the homes of volunteers, electric roasting pans are used to keep the food warm at the Pizza King.

“We have roasters setting everywhere,” Ruth said, “and it’s fun to watch the men (volunteers) checking on the turkey and stirring the green beans.”

“We live so close I keep a turkey warming in the oven at home,” Ruth explained about the holiday’s activity, and their son, Stephen Brown, a chef at the Orchard Ridge Country Club in Fort Wayne, and who also lives near his parents, also has a pan full of turkey warming in the oven at his home.

For the first time since the couple began their unselfish gesture, Ruth was unable to help with the 2004 meal due to back problems, but this year will find her back at the business making sure everyone leaves with satisfied appetites.

Those attending the dinner are not required to pay for their hearty meal, but donations are accepted and those donations cover the expenses for the next year’s meal.

And leftovers do not go to waste, but are delivered to facilities such as jails and retirement homes in the area.

Anyone wanting a meal to be delivered should call the Browns, “don’t call the Pizza King,” Ruth said, “it interferes with their work.” Meals will be delivered by 11 a.m. on Thanksgiving day when serving of the meal at the Pizza King begins.

“I look forward to it each year,” Thompson said about delivering the meals.

“I enjoy the fellowship and if I can reach out and help one person...,” said longtime volunteer Wanda Besser.

“We have one guy come all the way from Baton Rogue, La., every year,” Thompson said. “He comes to visit his father in Geneva and they both come to eat.”

“Youngsters like to help, too,” Ruth said, explaining that local Boy Scouts have regularly assisted at the site.

“And we want the Spanish people to know they’re welcome to come and eat, too,” Ruth said about the Mexican-American population in Geneva.

Anyone who would like a home-bound delivered meal should call the Browns at (260) 589-2214 or (260) 368-7352.[[In-content Ad]]