Souls Harbour Rescue Mission hosted their annual Thanksgiving dinner Friday afternoon, preparing food for 750 people.
More than 80 volunteers helped prepare over 70 turkeys, 400 pounds of potatoes, 150 pumpkin pies along with gravy, stuffing and vegetables.
“(I love) the people, the atmosphere… Everyone is always very happy,” Karen Lonechild said. “I like coming here, I always bring my family.”
The feast allows everyone to enjoy a warm Thanksgiving meal, especially those who don’t have a family dinner to share.
“A lot of people are going to sit down with their families this time of year, and many people can’t do that,” Mayor Michael Fougere said, who was helping serve the dinner on Friday.
“They’ll be alone by themselves otherwise, so this is so very, very important that we provide a hot meal for the families and their kids at this time of year.”
Organizers say it couldn’t be possible without the volunteers.
“The reality is we simply couldn’t do this without all the volunteers and all of these people coming together and helping us,” Souls Harbour Rescue Mission Executive Director Joe Miller said.
Souls Harbour has been hosting the dinner for 27 years. They also host annual feasts on Christmas and Easter, but the Thanksgiving meal always has the highest attendance.
“It’s pretty overwhelming actually, I almost had tears in my eyes seeing people come in,” organizer Deana Stuble said. “It feels really good to be able to do this for our community.”