Melva Houston, left, talks with visitors as they leave the annual Community Thanksgiving dinner at First Baptist Church. This year will mark the 14th annual dinner which provides meals to anyone who wants to share fellowship and friendship for the holiday.
offered at First Baptist
This will be the 14th year that local jazz singer Melva Houston and her organization, Friends of a Brighter Community, will be hosting a free community Thanksgiving meal at the First Baptist Church of Mount Airy.
The Friends of a Brighter Community, which is a group of people from different denominations who volunteer to prepare and serve the annual dinner, is expecting an even bigger crowd this year than last.
Houston has a passion for preparing the annual community Thanksgiving meal, and this year is no exception.
“This Thanksgiving meal is more like a community get together because of the fact that so many different people from Mount Airy and that crosses over age, gender and denominations — this is for everyone. It’s a passion for me if I feed a millionaire down to a man sleeping under the stars, I want it to be known that this is a ‘community dinner’ that celebrates peace and justice in our community,” said Houston.
Houston said she has seen everyone from the elderly, who don’t want to cook a big meal, to local singles who are living away from their families come to the dinner.
“This is for anyone who would like to get together for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner,” Houston said. “This will be a traditional meal with all the trimmings, everyone is welcome.”
Houston emphasized that the meal is a community event, so she wanted to invite people who have to work that day such as firefighters, police officers, paramedics, hospital employees — or anyone who has to work and doesn’t have time to spend with their family or prepare a traditional Thanksgiving meal. She said they can even get their meal to go.
The meal will be served on Thursday starting at noon and continuing until 5 p.m. Last year, she said the group served at least 400 people.
Houston said people have already lined up to volunteer to prepare and serve the meals, but more volunteers are always welcome.
“We as a people always end up waiting until someone passes away before you get together, let’s do this once a year, if we don’t do it but once a year. That’s how the FOBC got started by cooking a meal and having everyone come and enjoy the meal.”
This year, the meal will consist of turkey, dressing, green beans, mashed potatoes, rolls, a dessert and a drink.
“I have a lot of people who come and celebrate and eat because they will either be at home alone, or they don’t have the food, and some people just want to come and fellowship, so they bring their families for that. It’s just wonderful to be able to do this.”
Non-perishable food will be available to those who need to take a little extra home with them at this time of the year.
For more information about the meal, call 789-1134.
Friends Feeding Friends tradition continues this Thanksgiving
Instead of preparing Thanksgiving dinner for themselves this year, owners, employees and volunteers with 13 Bones and Mount Airy Meat Center are collaborating with members of the Surry Longspurs for the second annual Friends Feeding Friends program. They hope to feed 1,500 hungry people in Surry County this Thanksgiving.
Last year for the program, the group prepared and gave out more than 1,300 meals to Mount Airy residents and those living in surrounding communities in Surry County.
In order to see who needs the meals, tickets were given to the local schools, dialysis centers, hospice and local churches. To make the meal possible this year, monetary donations were given by M&M Signs & Awnings, Inc., Golding Signworks, LLC and Herb Inman. Merita Bread Co. is donating the rolls and this year and tickets were donated by Pioneer Printing. Desserts are being donated by students from Move2Melt Studios, workers from the Surry County School System, as well as others individuals in the community.
Chef and part-owner of 13 Bones, Andy Reece, and Gray Gwyn, owner of Mount Airy Meat Center, got the idea last year, that they would like to give back to the community. So with the help of about 40 volunteers they did just that by preparing, packaging and feeding needy people in the community.
Contact Mondee Tilley at mtilley@mtairynews.com or at 719-1930.
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