Surf Cat

Today will be the 40th consecutive Thanksgiving that the First United Methodist Church in downtown Kenosha and its dedicated team of volunteers have opened its doors to serve up holiday meals and fellowship to the community.

The tradition continues from noon until 2 p.m. at the church at 919 60th St., and is the highlight of the year for the many guests who come through the doors to share a meal with their families, meeting and greeting old and new friends.

The free feast is open to hungry locals in need, unable to cook for themselves or with no place to go.

The idea to host the dinner began in 1979 after the First UMC Missions Committee decided to provide a meal to the residents of the Dayton Hotel, a housing unit for men.

The Thanksgiving Dinner began as an outreach to the homeless and was later opened to everyone in the community.

According to Rev. Justin Elliott Lowe, the church’s associate pastor, around 200-250 visitors are served each Thanksgiving and it takes between 75 and 100 volunteers to prepare and serve the turkey, sides, pies and all the fixings.

Serving the meal to members of the community is something the entire congregation looks forward to each year, Lowe said. Many of the volunteers opt to assist the Thanksgiving Dinner rather than host dinner with their families — it has become that important a tradition for them.

“We continue to give this meal because there are people who want and need a place to go to for celebrating Thanksgiving,” he said, adding, that giving of their time has many unseen benefits.

“The opportunity to serve and the opportunity to help God in showing God’s grace to all,” Lowe said.

And how much is being served?

How about 400 pounds of turkey, 100 pounds of potatoes, 100 pounds of stuffing, 80 pounds of sweet potatoes, 80 pounds of mixed vegetablesseven gallons of gravy, dozens of dinner rolls, countless pounds of cranberries and gallons of juice and coffee?

Most of the food for the massive feast is donated and it takes a large kitchen crew several hours to prepare the food and set the tables, beginning early Wednesday morning.

“We have a group of chefs and kitchen crew that begin in the morning,” said Lowe. “Then around midnight, the chefs return and begin to cook all the turkeys.”

While the majority of volunteers come from First United Methodist Church, there are also a number of volunteers from the wider Kenosha community who assist with the dinner.

“They freely give of their time, energy and love,” said Lowe. “First Church is a community filled with generous, caring and loving people. This community dinner is one tangible way we can bring our theology to life. Jesus cared about our physical and spiritual needs, and we as the Body of Christ, the church, must continue to meet both.”

Not everything has gone right every year.

Besides the occasional occasions where something burned and had to be replaced, like in any kitchen, there have been challenges, but the church teams — and the community on occasion — have stepped up to meet them.

For example, in 2017 a failure in a major refrigeration unit led to a potential disaster as turkeys had to be procured again literally hours before they had to begin cooking.

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, prepped turkeys for the church’s annual community Thanksgiving feast were left in then-functioning industrial refrigeration units in the church kitchen. But by 7:30 a.m. the next day, the church discovered that, at some point during the night, the fridges had malfunctioned.

The loss registered a whopping 386 pounds on the turkey scale.

But, phone calls soon brought aid as a store donated four turkeys. The church was then able to purchase the rest.

Lowe picked up the birds, got them back to the church and by 11 a.m. taht Wednesday they were in “quick defrost” mode in the church kitchen.

Guests are grateful for the warm meal, the kindness of volunteers, camaraderie, and for a welcoming place to share their gratitude on Thanksgiving.

“People say over and over, ‘Thank you. Thank you for being here and for opening your church to the entire community,’” explained Lowe. “This has become an annual tradition for many families. Our Thanksgiving Day centers around the Community Thanksgiving Dinner.”

There are no signs of stopping the popular dinner and Lowe anticipates it continuing into many future generations.

“We are dedicated to building a diverse community with God’s radical love,” he said. “Therefore, we will live into God’s radical love.