On Thanksgiving morning, several drivers idled their vehicles on Elm Street waiting to turn into the parking lot of St. Mary’s Parish Center.
They were volunteer drivers who had signed up to deliver hundreds of Thanksgiving meals to residents throughout Otsego County and beyond for the annual Oneonta Community Thanksgiving Dinner.
Inside the building — the old St. Mary’s school which houses the church’s food pantry — volunteers prepared about 775 delivery and take-out turkey dinners assembly-line style, according to meal coordinator Cindy Korb.
Korb said that the church had prepared for enough food for 900 meals. This year set the record for most number of meals served, she said.
The dining area had been set up to feed about 100 dine-in guests, who were served between 12:30 and 2 p.m. Korb said that about 80 people ate their meal in the parish center.
Drivers, coordinated by Deb Bruce, packed their vehicles with no less than a dozen meals each. Some drivers took two dozen meals. Many made multiple stops.
Joan Tubridy, of Meredith, made deliveries to Lantern Hill Mobile Home Park before heading out of town to deliver more. This was her second year volunteering at St. Mary’s Thanksgiving meal.
“I’m just happy to help out,” said Tubridy, a retired elementary school teacher. “My sister is doing the volunteering [also]. Last year, and this year, we’re going out for Indian food afterwards.”
Eileen Kline, Tubridy’s sister and next-door neighbor in Meredith, worked inside the food pantry building. On Wednesday and Thursday, she helped cut and plate pieces of pie for the dine-in guests.
She also stepped in and helped schlep the grocery bags that contained the to-go meals and cutlery from the church to the cars of the delivery drivers.
“It’s been a good experience,” Kline said, “a lot of nice people that I’m working with.”
Volunteers gave their time as drivers, food preparers, cooks, packers and cleaners.
The volunteers prepared the food — turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, fruit cups and pie — throughout the week beginning Tuesday using the kitchens at St. Mary’s, the Lord’s Table and the First United Methodist Church on Chestnut Street.
The effort to put on the meal came from not only the volunteers who prepared, served and delivered the food, but from the community as well.
Children from the Oneonta Boys and Girls Club and Springbrook, and the children of the volunteer decorated festival placemats for the dine-in meal.
The Friends of Christmas group has hosted a holiday meal in December for 35 years.