Food, family and fun

The 20th annual Platte Valley Helping Hands (PVHH) Free Thanksgiving Dinner will be on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26, this year. The dinner will be held from 12:30 to 2 p.m. at St. Anne’s Parish Hall, 218 Spring Ave., Saratoga.

This year’s menu includes roast turkey and dressing, baked ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, green peas, relish trays, dinner rolls, beverages and pumpkin pie for dessert. Take-out dinners are available, and those who want meals to go can call to place their order on or before Nov. 25.

PVHH board member Gertrude Herold said that the dinners started after the Helping Hands board decided this was a good event to benefit everyone in the community. In that spirit, Herold encourages anyone and everyone to partake in the Thanksgiving feast. “We have a big turnout every year,” Herold said.

According to Herold, the dinner generally hosts a lot of families, including grandparents, parents and their children. The dinner caters to families who had a busy week and have not had the chance to fix a dinner, or groups looking for some holiday camaraderie, Herold added.

All of the food is homemade and the ingredients are donated by people from the community. Volunteers with PVHH prepare all of the food, even the turkeys this year. The pie committee will begin baking the day before Thanksgiving and they will cook the turkey at the Platte Valley Community Center kitchen.

On Thanksgiving Day, volunteers gather at about 7 a.m. to begin food preparation. The volunteers tend to get into the holiday spirit. Herold said, “Everybody is in a good mood and we just have a fun time.” Anybody that wants to volunteer is welcome to come down to St. Anne’s Parish Hall and join in the fun.

For more information on the PVHH Thanksgiving dinner, call Marilynn Verplancke at 326-8190, Deborah D’Amico at 326-3717, Merlin Hoopes at 326-8668, or Gertrude Herold at 326-5496.