Friendship Inn preparing to dish out around 1,000 meals for Thanksgiving Day

For the 53rd straight year, the Friendship Inn is working to make sure no one goes hungry on Thanksgiving.

The annual Thanksgiving Day meal will be dished out Monday, with the dine-in option running from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and the takeaway option extended to 2 p.m.

“We expect probably about 1,000 meals to be prepared and served that day,” said Sandra Kary, the Friendship Inn’s executive director.

“This is our biggest meal and we’re bumping up how much we are going to prepare. We typically run around 1,000 meals on the Thanksgiving Day.”

COVID-19 protocols have remained the same at the Friendship Inn throughout the pandemic. Guests are given sanitizer when they arrive, with masking and social distancing measures in place. The one outlier would be individuals attending from the same home, such as a family.

“We serve the meals to our guests and then make sure we properly clean every area after that guest leaves. It’s a really safe way to do it and we’ve been doing that all along throughout the pandemic. It’s worked really well for us,” Kary said.

The Friendship Inn has served the meal annually since Day 1, Kary explained.

“We’ve been a place where the community has been able to come for a Thanksgiving meal for a long, long time,” she said.

In terms of what’s needed for Monday’s feast, Kary asked the public for financial donations, along with any goods such as turkey, frozen vegetables and pies.

Organizers are good for volunteers on Monday, but the same can’t be said for days leading up to the holiday.

“We could use a few more volunteers for the days prior for preparation,” Kary said, pointing to the organization’s website as the place people can go to reach out to them.

The Friendship Inn’s website can be accessed by clicking here.