Sisters Community Church hosts free Thanksgiving feast

Sisters Community Church is hosting a free Thanksgiving Feast on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 23, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. All are invited and welcome to attend.

The event is being held at the church, located next to Sisters Middle School at 15220 McKenzie Hwy.

Turkey and ham, dressing, mashed potatoes and several other side dishes will be served.

Church spokesman Garth Tosello said, "It's going to be a very traditional Thanksgiving menu."

Several different kinds of pie will be served for dessert. Ladonna Church is leading the team that will be preparing the meal.

According to Tosello, the church's goal is to offer a free Thanksgiving dinner to members of the community who may be alone or who would not otherwise have access to a Thanksgiving meal.

Tosello said that the church's desire is to fashion "something similar to what the fire department does on Christmas Day."

The meal is being prepared in the spirit of Thanksgiving by church members who are coming together to share in the joy of working together and reaching out to others. It is hoped that this experience will help all to take the time to express appreciation for individual blessings.

If the event is well received, the church hopes to make this an annual event. This year most volunteers will be church members. Hopefully, as the event grows, community members from other churches and organizations will join in to assist with the event.

Tosello said that the Thanksgiving feast "is being led and driven right now mostly by people in the church. I think because its the first time, its starting with a smaller base of people than what we'd expect down the road. Ideally as we get the word out earlier, if this is something that is accepted by the community and they want us to do it again, then we'd welcome having people from the community involved."

No real entertainment is planned this year, although the church will play music along with the meal.

A separate room will be set up for volunteers where food will be served and movies will be shown.

The idea is to provide entertainment for children and other family members while parents are volunteering with food preparation, serving and the inevitable cleaning up.

The event is one of the church's outward ministries with the goal of serving the community through meeting the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs of community members.

The church does not really know how many people will attend. Tosello said that he spoke with the Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire Chief Tay Robertson to get an idea of how many the fire department serves on Christmas Day.

Tosello said, "We have an idea of the high end because they (the fire department) have been doing it for a few years," serving between 100 and 200. Tosello continued, "We figure we are going to be under that. We are planning on about 100, being the first year and everything like that."

Tosello added, "Our main target with some of our fliers to be quiet honest is - we made sure we got this out to the Food Bank and out to Shawna at FAN and spread it around at some of the apartments where we thought people might be who are single or not having a place to go for Thanksgiving. That's kind of the direct invite - the seniors in the community we of course invited."

Tosello would love for Thursday's meal to become an annual event.

"It's up to the community," he said.

If the community wants it, the church will do it again next year.