PLAINFIELD — With so many people in the community in need of help this holiday season, volunteers throughout the community will work to host the fourth annual Plainfield Community Thanksgiving Dinner from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 26 at the Guilford Township Community Center.
“With the economy the way that it is, it is definitely needed,” Bryan Agan, event organizer, said. “There are just so many people in this community who have been blessed. Even in our worst of times, we can realize that we have more than a lot of people do. There are a lot of people in our community who are depressed financially and emotionally. There are all kinds of different needs.”
Agan said he thinks the free dinner will help instill the values of Thanksgiving back to members of the community.
“Thanksgiving is supposed to be a time where we share our bounty,” he said. “It’s gotten to be where everyone just thinks about grandma’s cooking and the football game. It’s a little more than that.”
Agan said they’ve been offering the dinner in Plainfield for the last four years.
“It’s always been on my heart to do it,” he said. “I am a professional chef and I love cooking for people. Probably 15 years ago, I thought that our church was big enough to do it. It’s just kind of something that sat in the back of my head.”
He said it was a sermon at church, titled “Just Do It,” that finally got him to go ahead with it.
“It was really pretty neat,” Agan said. “If God has put something on your heart, don’t wait for a bolt of lightning to strike to get it going. If He has put it on your heart, it’s already there, get on it.”
The following day, Agan went to the church and spoke to the ministry staff. After telling them his vision of having a community Thanksgiving dinner, the church elders agreed to allow Agan to use the facility.
The amount of community support that the event has received has shown how much it was appreciated.
“I had over 300 volunteers the first year,” Agan said. “That told me that it was on a lot of other people’s hearts, not just mine.”
In the previous three years, the dinner has taken place at Plainfield Christian Church.
“We are still preparing all of the food at Plainfield Christian Church,” Agan said. “We changed it to a smaller, maybe more easily approachable venue of the Guilford Township Community Center at Hummel Park.”
Agan is hoping that the change of location might allow them to cater to more people.
“This isn’t a church activity,” he said. “It just took place at a church. Some people are apprehensive to go in a church. Some of that is hard to get around. To make them overcome that fear, we decided to move it to some place that doesn’t have anything to do with church.”
Agan takes any leftover food to Wheeler Mission on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
“Somebody is going to be blessed, whether they know it or not,” he said.
For more information about the dinner, contact Agan by calling 839-2407 or by e-mailing to bachef1964@yahoo.com.
ryan.palencer@flyergroup.com
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