Princeton Church’s Thanksgiving Tradition Serves Hungry Neighbors

When a church commits to be the hands and feet of Christ to their neighbors, it can get messy!

That was literally Tad Smith’s experience the year of the Great Gravy Spill at his church’s annual Thanksgiving Day outreach. An unexpectedly wet counter caused a giant pan of freshly made gravy to end up all over the church kitchen floor—and Tad’s pants. “We were able to make more gravy,” he recalls, “just not as much as we had originally planned.”

For 22 years, the Evangelical Covenant Church in rural Princeton, Illinois, has welcomed the messiness of ministry by hosting a free community-wide Thanksgiving Day meal, serving approximately 250 people a hot, homemade turkey dinner. In partnership with two other churches in Princeton—St. Louis Catholic Church and New Hope Church of the Nazarene—the congregation sees this as one way we can meet real needs for both food and friendship in our community.

The idea started in the fall of 2000 with Joel and Carol Nelson when their daughter, Katie, was on a study-abroad trip with North Park University. Faced with the uncomfortable prospect of Katie’s empty chair at the table that year, the Nelsons recalled serving at a Thanksgiving Day event sponsored by a church in the Quad Cities the year before. What if they offered a similar event for people in their own community who might otherwise be without connection? They teamed up with fellow ECC Princeton members Pete and Konnie Swanson, and the idea for a free community Thanksgiving meal was born.

For the Swansons, saying “yes” was a response not just to their friends’ invitation, but also to a sermon preached earlier that year by former pastor (and longtime North Park University professor) Rev. C. John Weborg. Dr. Weborg had called the congregation to reach out to their neighbors and care for those in need in practical ways. The Thanksgiving Day meal was an opportunity to live out their faith in obedience to God’s Word.

The team solicited food donations and hands-on help from the congregation of ECC Princeton. (In subsequent years, more volunteers would join from their interdenominational partner churches.) They invited residents from local low-income housing communities, hung flyers at a nearby truck stop and on community boards at gas stations and banks. The night before Thanksgiving, volunteers gathered to set up tables in the church fellowship hall and to peel potatoes. (“No instant…nothing funny!” says Konnie Swanson.)

That year, 50 or 60 people shared the meal, strangers from the community and families from the church sitting together over plates of roasted turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, dressing, green bean casserole, dinner rolls, and pie. And while the number of diners has grown over the last 20-plus years, the menu hasn’t changed much. When Shirley and Glenn Peterson (long-term staff members at the Covenant Children’s Home) joined the team, Shirley’s homemade crescent rolls became a staple. When Tad Smith (of the aforementioned Great Gravy Spill) joined, he tweaked the dressing recipe to include apples, cranberries, and sausage (see below).

After the success of the first year, the event and the planning team grew. Youth Pastor Donovan Daegatano would help the team grow intergenerationally by organizing the church’s students into a potato-peeling party. Other churches joined in. Lynda Smith, an ECC Princeton member who has filled roles from pie baker and order taker to delivery driver, says, “When I was young, all the churches were so separate. We didn’t intermingle as kids, especially with the Catholics. Now it was such a joy to work together and serve the community!”

As years have gone by, many changes have been necessary, some easier than others. The team added delivery service for shut-ins and carryout for those who preferred to take meals home. They also wrestled with the question of vision: “Who is this for?” Some leaders wanted to focus primarily on those with the greatest need in the community, such as senior citizens without nearby family and those with limited financial means. Others preferred a “y’all come” approach, where people of every situation—including the volunteers’ own families—would share the meal together. Perhaps the greatest challenge came in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic required not only greatly heightened food safety protocols but—with great sadness—ended in-person dining. Since then, the meal has only been offered for delivery or carryout.

Ending in-person dining had a mixed impact. For many, the chance to see neighbors and meet new friends had been the highlight of the event. As ECC member Jerry Coughlin recalls, “That meal meant so much to me every year… [it was] the epitome of home to me.” Jerry worked as an in-home caregiver, and his clients were often delighted to join him at the community meal. On the other hand, Tad Smith says, the team has been able to serve more meals (without straining the fire code limits of the fellowship hall) now that the meal is exclusively delivery or carryout.

ECC members Tim Harris and Tad Smith currently coordinate a well-oiled system of pre-ordered meals (online and phone orders are accepted), food prep-and-pack assembly lines, and a relay of meal runners using two-way radios. The carryout car line moves steadily through the church parking lot from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm, while a small team of delivery drivers bring meals all over the county in a 15-mile radius from the church.

Last year, the team’s grocery list included 120 pounds of potatoes and nine or ten donated turkeys (which donors are asked to roast and pre-carve). Despite occasional hiccups, “It always seems like it comes together at the last minute,” says Tim Harris.

Alex Taylor, ECC Princeton’s pastor of students and outreach, is looking forward to another chance to feed hungry neighbors this year. “I am excited to see how God uses our church to be his hands and feet in our community.”