Beaver Dam Unified School District food service director Mike Otto, left, and district events coordinator Bob Schwoch talk about the community Thanksgiving that will be held at Beaver Dam High School for needy families and senior citizens.
Beaver Dam High School will be the host site this year for a community Thanksgiving dinner targeted at helping out needy families and senior citizens.
A community-based gathering to celebrate Thanksgiving works to help the students learn about the importance of community service, district events coordinator Bob Schwoch said.
“The district works at teaching the kids good conduct with the pillars of conduct,” Schwoch said. “Community service is one of the pillars. We’re striving to help families and help our students to learn to be good citizens and help each other when in need.”
The district cafeteria staff, BDHS Key Club and Student Council, volunteer district staff and students and community members have all come forward to help with the meal and serving the food, Schwoch said. And area businesses have agreed to provide much of the food that will be served at a rate the district has not seen in the past.
However Schwoch said they have been missing one key component to the meal.
“We’ve gotten very few responses,” Schwoch said. “We don’t have 100 people signed up yet.”
Letters have been sent to households in the school district who have children who qualify for free and reduced lunches. Schwoch said they anticipated between 600 and 700 people to sign up for the Thanksgiving dinner.
Families who cannot afford to provide Thanksgiving meals as well as elderly members of the community are invited to the meal. The menu will consist of roast turkey, boxed stuffing, potatoes, gravy, dinner rolls, vegetables, condiments
The dinner is replacing the basket program that the school provided in years past. The now nonexistent DECA group at the high school began the basket program over 25 years ago. About five years ago, the group stopped their program and the administration of the school picked up where they left off. Over the years though, the demand for the baskets have went up.
Schwoch said last year well over $8,000 was spent on the food for the baskets that were meant to feed 1,500 people.
Staff and students collected items and donated money for the baskets and drove the baskets to homes.
“Even the postage was donated,” Schwoch said.
“We sent out 942 letters,” Schwoch said. “If even half of them would have responded, we couldn’t have afforded the baskets. So this time we decided to do al l the cooking and provide the meal and do it in a relatively cheap way.”
District food service director Mike Otto is cooking he meal.
“He formerly ran restaurants so he is well prepared to do this,” Schwoch said.
Elderly and families in need of the assistance can call 885-7520, ext. 2249 to attend. They will ask for a name, number of people attending and a time preference. Times available are 11 to 11:50 a.m., noon to 1:10 p.m. and 1:20 to 2 p.m. Time slots will be considered full when the available seating is booked for the time slot, so early reservations are suggested. Reservations will close on Friday, Nov. 13 or wen it is filled to capacity.
The meal not only gives to the community but also gives back to the district, Schwoch said.
“We want to show the kids the meaning of Thanksgiving and share our bounty with others and assist in bad economic times,” Schwoch said. “We hope they’ll come and participate in the spirit it was intended for.”