Friendship Inn served record number on Thanksgiving

While many may still be finishing up the Thanksgiving leftovers, many others were grateful to simply have a meal on the holiday.

That can be said for the hundreds of people who received a Thanksgiving dinner at the Friendship Inn on Monday.

“We served 1,963 meals in one day. And that’s a record for us, we’ve never done that kind of volume before,” said executive director Sandra Kary.

That number was an all-time record for the Friendship Inn, Kary said, not just for Thanksgiving.

She said the kitchen was prepared for the large number of people coming through the doors, but the higher number could be attributed to having both dine-in and take-out options, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have the capacity to do it, but only can do it with the support of the community,” she added.

Over the past couple of months, Kary said she has noticed the number of people needing meals has increased, she’s been hearing a lot about the rising cost of food.

“On average, we used to do about 1,000 meals a day, and in September and into October we’re averaging 1,200 to 1,300 meals a day,” she said.

“We continue to plan for meal usage numbers to increase, or hopefully steady out a little bit. We don’t want that trajectory going so high that it becomes insurmountable.”

Kary said such high numbers are new territory for her, but she’s grateful for the huge amount of community support that helped make it possible.

Food and monetary donations are always welcome, she said. As the weather gets colder, the Friendship Inn is also looking for donations of outerwear, jackets, mittens and scarves, new or used.

–Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct a typo.