The First Baptist Church, Water St., Pittston, is bringing back the annual Thanksgiving free community take-out dinner only on Tuesday, Nov. 21, from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the chuch. Call in orders are being accepted from Nov. 6 through Nov. 18. Call 570-654-0283. Committee members for the dinner are shown in the photo. Seated, left to right: Zaida Hernandez, Sharleen Watson, Ben Tielle, Cindy Hrobuchak, Sharon Harris, Lois McHugh (Meals on Wheels). Back row: Kim Van Voorhis, Jennifer Sanchez, Henrietta Bevan, First Lady Sherrell Breese, Rev. James H. Breese, Charles Watson, Ruth Tielle, Cindy Kizis, John George, Daniel Ide, Katy Ide, Linda Falzone (Meals On Wheels).
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
PITTSTON – The vision of helping the needy going back to the early days of Rev. James Breese’s ministry at the First Baptist Church, the annual Thanksgiving Free Community Dinner is returning after a hiatus from the pandemic.
On Tuesday, Nov. 21, the church, located off the Firefighter’s Memorial Bridge, will have a take-out only dinner from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. The last day to call in an order is Monday, Nov. 20.
“Every year since the pandemic, we would take a look at it and the committee didn’t feel comfortable enough to restart the dinner for safety reasons,” Ben Tielle, Thanksgiving Dinner chairperson, said. “We thought about having the dining hall reopen for this year’s Thanksgiving Dinner, but when we first started our meetings, there was talk of COVID making a comeback, so we voted to make it take-out only this year. We will probably bring back the full-service in-house dinner for next year.”
Tielle said Greater Pittston Meals on Wheels will utilize Dupont’s Holy Mother of Sorrows Church’s commercial kitchen to prepare the food for the dinners without interfering with Meals on Wheels’ kitchen’s daily operations.
“The base of the operations will take place at Holy Mother of Sorrows and everything will be transferred everything down to us at the Baptist Church to prepare the dishes,” Tielle added.
Tielle said there have been plenty of food donations including from the Holy Mother of Sorrows Church and Meals on Wheels and other organizations that will help feed an estimated 300 to 400 dinners served.
“We have our schedule all set up, and on Sunday and Monday we will be cooking and on Monday night we will prep and on Tuesday morning, we will pack out trays for people to show up,” Tielle said.
The Thanksgiving meal will come complete with mashed potatoes, turkey, cranberries, stuffing, corn and green beans, a dinner roll and butter and a slice of pie.
Tielle said people should arrive to pick up meals at the front door with the exception of handicapped that would be able to get their meals at the side door.
If anyone is interested in having a meal, call the church at 570- 654-0283.
“All anyone would have to do is call the church number, leave a name, phone number and the amount of meals they need and they will be ready at the church,” concluded Tielle.
