Thanksgiving Dinner Curbside Delivery

Jean Saunders, volunteer President of AFS has uncovered yet another important community need that will not be satisfied unless the community is called to action.  Every year for as far back as I can remember Most Holy Trinity Parish in Saco has served a traditional, face-to-face, family style turkey dinner free to the community.  It is my understanding that historically approximately 850 meals have been served each year.  For many, this has been their only family Thanksgiving dinner.  Unfortunately the church has decided that due to the pandemic they will not be providing the face-to-face meal program this year.  It appears that they have no alternative plan, leaving the community without the meal opportunity altogether.

On November 25th AFS is looking to partner with the Ferry Beach Association to prepare 300 meals and make them available (by advanced order) to recipients via curbside pickup at the Ferry Beach dining facility.  AFS has secured complete funding from several generous local donors which will cover all costs related to food and packing supplies.  FBA will provide their kitchen/dining facility staffed with professional chefs to complete the cooking in accordance with COVID19 food prep standards.  The dining room will be used for inside packaging.  The facility's parking area will be used for outside drive-up distribution.  Food warmers will be available in the pickup area to facilitate the process.

Once again AFS is asking Saco Bay Rotary club members to volunteer for both inside food packing and outside meal distribution (with proper COVID19 distancing protocols in place).  Specifically we need about 6 inside volunteers and 1 more outside volunteer to work with Lucie and myself.  Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate more volunteers than that due to social distancing requirements.  We'll have to go on a first-come first-selected volunteer basis. 

The time commitment is as follows.  Arrive for a one hour mandatory COVID19 food handling briefing at 12noon.  Meal deliveries are scheduled to start at 2pm and end at 6pm.  Let's try to schedule in 3 hour shifts.  If you can join us for both shifts, great.  If you can only join us for one shift, we will will try to fill the remaining shift with someone else.