Volunteer John Ridenour brings out pumpkin pies to cool before boxing them up at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church on Wednesday. Church volunteers made 120 pies to donate to the annual Citywide Thanksgiving Dinner and sold more than 500 other pies to benefit the church. Brenda Moran, coordinator of the dinner, said that between 850 and 900 Thanksgiving meals were distributed via curbside pickup at the Council Bluffs Country Club or delivery across town. It was her 20th year of coordinating the dinner and she was thankful for all the vendors who donated the food and volunteers who cooked, packed and served the meals to families.
From left, Volunteers John and Carolyn Ridenour, Margaret Morse, Connie Loftus and Teresa and John Schlautman hold pies inside St. Patrick’s Catholic Church on Wednesday. Church volunteers made 120 pies to donate to the annual Citywide Thanksgiving Dinner and sold more than 500 other pies to benefit the church. Brenda Moran, coordinator of the dinner, said that between 850 and 900 Thanksgiving meals were distributed via curbside pickup at the Council Bluffs Country Club or delivery across town. It was her 20th year of coordinating the dinner and she was thankful for all the vendors who donated the food and volunteers who cooked, packed and served the meals to families.
Volunteer John Ridenour boxes up an apple pie at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church on Wednesday. Church volunteers made 120 pies to donate to the annual Citywide Thanksgiving Dinner and sold more than 500 other pies to benefit the church. Brenda Moran, coordinator of the dinner, said that between 850 and 900 Thanksgiving meals were distributed via curbside pickup at the Council Bluffs Country Club or delivery across town. It was her 20th year of coordinating the dinner and she was thankful for all the vendors who donated the food and volunteers who cooked, packed and served the meals to families.
Volunteer Margaret Morse shows off the pie crust crimping device at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church on Wednesday. Church volunteers made 120 pies to donate to the annual Citywide Thanksgiving Dinner and sold more than 500 other pies to benefit the church. Brenda Moran, coordinator of the dinner, said that between 850 and 900 Thanksgiving meals were distributed via curbside pickup at the Council Bluffs Country Club or delivery across town. It was her 20th year of coordinating the dinner and she was thankful for all the vendors who donated the food and volunteers who cooked, packed and served the meals to families.
Volunteer John Ridenour pulls pies out of the oven at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. Church volunteers made 120 pies to donate to the annual Citywide Thanksgiving Dinner and sold more than 500 other pies to benefit the church. Brenda Moran, coordinator of the dinner, said that between 850 and 900 Thanksgiving meals were distributed via curbside pickup at the Council Bluffs Country Club or delivery across town. It was her 20th year of coordinating the dinner and she was thankful for all the vendors who donated the food and volunteers who cooked, packed and served the meals to families.
The Citywide Thanksgiving Dinner fed almost 900 people Thursday in a mammoth operation that took weeks to plan and days of collecting food.
The “controlled chaos” produced 850 to 900 meals for pickup or delivery and some leftovers that were donated to MOHM’s Place, according to coordinator Brenda Moran, who repeated that “many hands make light work.”
It took 1,000 pounds of turkey (40 20-pound birds and 200 pounds of turkey breast meat), 500 pounds of potatoes, 300 boxes of stuffing, 18 steamer pans of green bean casserole, four large stock pots full of “wonderfully rich” gravy, 118 homemade pumpkin pies, 800-plus Rotella’s dinner rolls, 800-plus cartons of milk and an army of volunteers, she said.
Moran made special mention of Lou Palacio, manager of Council Bluffs Country Club and head chef; Bill, his employee, who ran the kitchen and kept all of the food hot and ready to go; the Jares/Morgan, Sheffield and Tietsort families, who “served” the meals; and volunteers who packed the meals and ran them out to the cars; and a caravan of drivers who delivered meals all over the city.
“We all needed to troubleshoot and reconsider how things were happening at a pretty hectic pace. However, it all seemed to work out in the end — to be honest, it usually does — and that is due in very large part to the good-hearted people who arrive willing to help in whatever way possible to bring a hot homemade meal to others,” she said.