photo by: By Elvyn Jones

Diners enjoy the LINK Thanksgiving meal on Thursday, Nov. 25, 2021, at tables with socially distanced seating in the basement of First Christian Church in downtown Lawrence. LINK organizers said it was the first public event in the basement since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

Lawrence Interdenominational Nutrition Kitchen volunteers at downtown Lawrence’s First Christian Church weren’t expecting a very busy day when they started serving their annual Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday afternoon.

The reason? LINK board member Anne Emert said that the in-person version of the community meal has been eclipsed by home deliveries.

“We delivered 700 meals,” she said. “We have 150 meals for here. We think we’ll have about 70 eat-in and the rest to-go.”

The annual event is a community effort that involves 25 congregations and hundreds of volunteers to prepare, deliver and serve meals, Emert said.

Although the traditional dine-in meal at the First Christian Church is now smaller with the large number of deliveries, there were still people at the church who were grateful for the opportunity to enjoy a holiday meal with others. Some of them otherwise would have dined alone on less traditional fare.

For Ed Martinko, it was his first Thanksgiving without his wife, who died in January. He said he enjoyed the meal, and that as someone who had volunteered with holiday meals at a church in the past, he was impressed with the efficiency of LINK’s operation.

“Everything was good,” he said as he finished his pie. “If I hadn’t come down here, I would have prepared salmon and whatever I had in the freezer.”

A few tables away, Trent and Katie Savage were finishing their meals with slices of pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream.

“It was all great,” Trent Savage said. “It’s better than heating a can of beans over a campfire. It’s nice that it was inside.”

Organizers were planning to set up tables outside on 10th Street like they did last year in the depth of the COVID-19 pandemic, but LINK board member Amy Carlson said they decided it was too cold. So, as in Thanksgivings past, the meal was served in the basement of the church, but on tables with socially distanced seating. Meals were pre-packaged and served to all to either eat at the tables or to go.

“It’s a first,” Carlson said. “It’s the first time we’ve opened the basement to the public since COVID.”

photo by: By Elvyn Jones

Volunteer Kay Soetaert. right, prepares to give a meal to a to-go diner at the LINK Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, Nov. 25, 2021, at First Christian Church in downtown Lawrence.

photo by: By Elvyn Jones

Trent Savage gets a banana from a tray at the LINK Thanksgiving meal on Thursday, Nov. 25, 2021, at First Christian Church. Sitting with him at the table is Katie Savage.