- Christ the Rock Church in Menasha brought together hundreds of volunteers to feed thousands of people this Thanksgiving.
- Some meals were delivered by volunteer drivers and some were enjoyed in person by a wide variety of community members.
- Pastor Micah Neely said 1,100 pounds of turkey and 500 pies were delivered for the holiday.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
Happy Thanksgiving! I'm Darby McCarthy in Appleton, where hundreds of people came together to serve thousands of meals and enjoy some wholesome togetherness.
“Delivering? OK, right here, and then you'll go out into the vestibule and be on your way. Happy Thanksgiving!”
Starting early on Thursday morning, car after car began a trek to the Grand Meridian for the event, which was coordinated primarily by Menasha's Christ the Rock Church.
“Santa Claus actually just came through for the second time; he took one load out to people and came back to deliver another.”
“I just wanted to give back”
Some visitors lined up to collect meals to deliver to families in the community.
"Oh, it feels great. Like, this warms my heart. This is what Thanksgiving is all about. It's giving back."
And some volunteers worked inside to prepare those meals.
“Tell her the turkey joke.”
“What did the Turkey have for Thanksgiving? Nothing! It was already stuffed.”
Event coordinator Joyel Vandenboogart says that the deliveries alone are proof of the power of coming together to volunteer.
“We have 2,800 deliveries that we are doing today. We are up from last year and super excited to be able to give meals to many people across the Fox Valley.”
The meals were made of mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, pumpkin pie — and a lot of turkey.
“There's 1,100 pounds of turkey that goes out, and we had over 500 pies served today.”
All members of the community were welcome to come spend the meal together, even when they didn't know about the event in advance!
“I was just riding by on my bike; I didn't even know what was going on until I saw a bunch of people going in and I stopped and asked.”
The in-person meals were served from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., but some say the day was savored for much longer.
