Thanksgiving may be a time for families to be together, but in southeast Iowa there are several events on Thanksgiving Day for residents to form connections in their community.

The WACO community will have their annual free Thanksgiving dinner at the high school cafeteria. All of the food is donated and prepared by the WACO Ministerial Association with the Brighton Ministerial Association newly joining this year. Event organizer Alicia Lemon looks forward to her second year in charge of the dinner, “Because we added the Brighton churches this year we’re hoping for a larger attendance than previously. But an average is about 150 with about 25 meals being delivered. We plan for 200. We probably end up, because food donations are so spectacular, sometimes we end up with enough food for 250.”

Lemon explains why citizens should attend the dinner, “It is an awesome opportunity to just meet community members. We have a wide variety of people that come. We have some families that come pretty regularly just because it works out for their larger family. We have some elderly people that come, maybe because they don’t have someone at home. But it’s not just for people that don’t have a place to go on Thanksgiving or don’t have food on Thanksgiving. It’s definitely for community members, we encourage all community members to come, and participate, and attend.”

The free Thanksgiving dinner will be served from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. November 23. There are other community Thanksgiving dinners happening in Richmond, Winfield, and Packwood. For more details visit our community calendar page at KCIIRadio.com.