East Ridge hosts a community Thanksgiving

EAST RIDGE, Tenn. (WDEF) – East Ridge wants to give a home cooked meal to their community.

Hannah Spear, the Community Center Supervisor for East Ridge said, “We are having a community Thanksgiving. It is for the East Ridge community and surrounding areas. We’ve got about a hundred spots for folks to come and eat a free Thanksgiving meal.

This is the first year of the community Thanksgiving.

“It’s been something that I have wanted to start for several years. I had mentioned it to my higher ups in a chamber meeting. I was like ‘hey I want to do this’ and a whole bunch of businesses came together and made it possible,” said Spear.

The meal will feature all the favorites.

“We have got turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and green beans. We will have deserts like pecan and pumpkin pie. We’ve got cranberry sauce and corn. A very typical thanksgiving meal we will be serving,” said Spear.

Many people are coming out for their free meal.

Spear said, “I checked this morning, we’ve got 96 people for our first meal, about 63 for our second, and a little over 70 for our third meal. We are hitting about a hundred for each meal. We are trying to leave a little wiggle room in case folks show up. We are not encouraging them to do that, but we want to be prepared if it happens.”

But there’s not just food on the menu.

“We also will have a coat and shoe room available for folks to get coats and shoes for free that have been donated for the last two months. Hamilton County will also be here providing Narcan training and free Narcan to people who qualify,” said Spear.

Seats are filling up at the table.

“You do have to be registered. We do have a couple spots still available, but we are starting to hit that mark where we are getting full,” said Spear.