Preparing to serve hundreds a special Thanksgiving Dinner

The Thanksgiving season is upon us and planning is already underway for The Ottawa Mission’s Annual Thanksgiving Dinner.

Although The Mission kitchen serves an average of 1250 meals every day of the year to people who are homeless or hungry, preparing a special holiday meal like Thanksgiving dinner takes a lot of extra food and extra work. It’s estimated about 2700 plates of turkey (and all the fixings) will be served up at the 5 hour event on the Thanksgiving Monday.

At the centre of this special meal, of course, is delicious roasted turkey.

Chef Ric Watson heads up the team of staff and volunteers who will debone, cook and carve about 90 large turkeys, or an estimated 2300 lbs of turkey, during the week before the big dinner.

You may wonder where all that turkey comes from.

Every fall, The Ottawa Mission asks for community donations of large frozen turkeys and every year generous people in the community come forward to help.

If you would like to contribute a Thanksgiving turkey for our annual Thanksgiving Dinner, donations can be dropped off anytime at The Ottawa Mission Front Desk, located at 35 Waller Street.

Your gift will bring food to the hungry and hope to people who thought they were forgotten.