Clary family hosting 17th community Thanksgiving dinner

Weiser’s annual free Community Thanksgiving dinner has been a tradition for nearly 40 years. With 17 years of its organization under their belts, Toby and Dana Clary, along with her mom, Susan Slyter, the operation runs like a well-oiled clock.

 “We’re hosting it at the Weiser Activity Center for Seniors on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28,” Clary told the Signal American. “We operate fully on donations and volunteers, all supported by the community. It’s been a blessing.”

 The dine-in meal will run from noon to 3 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.

“We took it over from the two Evelyns, Stover and Drumheller,” he added. “It’s been running pretty much the same way, although we did change venues. It used to be at the Elks Lodge, but then we kind of outgrew that. The Senior Center opened in their new building and have this commercial kitchen. So, we’ve been doing it here ever since, and it’s been fantastic.” 

 Clary said he thinks they could be hosting more than ever this year.

 “We saw numbers drop off during COVID, and we weren’t even sure we were going to do it that year, but decided to go ahead,” Clary said. “The way things were, we figured we still wanted to make sure people had someplace to eat, food available, and some kind of social interaction, regardless of what was going on.

 “Last year, it picked right back up,” he went on. “I don’t know how many come in and out, plus the deliveries, but we feed anywhere from 300 to 400 people.”

 Clary said they’ve got the meal plan and preparation down to a science, with a tried and true grocery list for the core meal, but they welcome donated homemade or purchased desserts, as well as salads.

 “Homemade desserts are always great, and if people want to bring store bought, that is great, too,” he said. “They can get hold of me, and bringing them closer to the dinner is better. They can even bring them that morning of the event. But if they need to drop them off the day before, they can just get hold of me at 208-521-8138.”

 He said they’re taking turkey donations now right up until the day before, along with monetary donations.

 “Any turkeys that are donated are turkeys we don’t have to buy,” Clary said. “And if anyone wants to volunteer, they can get hold of us. We still have spaces open for volunteers, anywhere from serving food to cleaning up to deliveries.”

 All of the meal deliveries will take place in the morning hours before the sit-down dinner starts.

 “Deliveries are done before we ever open the doors, and we organize them by areas in town,” Clary said with a smile. “We send the cavalry out before we open up the doors. We try to not overlap the deliveries and sit-down and we get a pretty huge rush as soon as the doors open.”