American Rescue Workers’ Community Thanksgiving Dinner meets an ever-growing need in Williamsport area

Things are really heating up at the American Rescue Workers as they prepare all the fixings for their Community Thanksgiving Dinner this Thursday.

"We're pretty busy in the kitchen as usual this time of year," said Melanie Shutt, marketing and community engagement coordinator at ARW.

"Chef Mark Williams, our kitchen operations manager, starts preparing for the event as early as summer, collecting canned goods that we need. Right now he's preparing 50 turkeys," she said. "While he does that, he continues to cook breakfast, lunch and dinner for our 70 shelter residents every day," she added.

In addition to turkey, Shutt said that Williams offers the traditional holiday fare.

"Chef Mark tends to try to keep to the traditional Thanksgiving meal that we'd normally expect," Shutt said.

"We have our turkey, stuffing, a vegetable, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, cranberry sauce and we have a wonderful volunteer from the community who makes the pumpkin pies for us every year," Shutt said.

The dinner is offered free of charge to the community. There is no pre-registration or meeting certain guidelines in order to qualify to receive it. There are no age requirements. It is a gift to a community where the need continues to grow.

"This is completely free to anyone in the community who needs a warm meal that day. We recognize that there's a population in our community that doesn't have the means to make a Thanksgiving meal at home, or it may be somebody who's spending the holiday alone," Shutt said.

"We're just happy to have that option to help serve those people in our community," she said.

Last year the Rescue Workers served 300 meals at their Community Thanksgiving Dinner. This year they will be prepared to serve up to 400 meals in anticipation of a greater response.

"Last month at our food pantries, we served about 934 households, which is about double what we served this time last year," she said.

It is a drive-up or walk-up distribution. Those who are interested can visit the Rescue Worker's furniture dock at 643 Elmira St. on Thanksgiving Day from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and go home with a complete Thanksgiving meal.