Continuing with their commitment to service, members of the Oakdale Lions Club are once again planning a community Thanksgiving Dinner.

“The dinner, of course, is on Thanksgiving so we will start serving at 11 a.m. and it ends at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 28,” said Lions Club member and Spirit of Oakdale committee chairperson Matt Hanko. “We have sent out 90 letters with sign up forms on them.”

Club members are seeking sign-ups for people to volunteer their time prepping and serving the meal, setting up the dining area at the Bianchi Community Center and are also looking for donations of food.

“We need people to cook turkeys and deliver them to Bachi’s Restaurant on Nov. 27,” Hanko added of getting donations lined up ahead of the holiday dinner.

For those that want to help but might not be able to afford to buy a turkey, Hanko said there will be frozen turkeys available at Bachi’s that volunteers can take home to cook and then return.

“We also need people to make pies or cakes,” the chairman said.

It’s a huge undertaking, but one that the Lions Club has overseen for the past few years. The holiday dinner typically serves hundreds at the Bianchi Center, while members of the CAPS, citizen volunteers for the police department, deliver meals to shut-ins that can’t make it to the sit-down dinner.

“Wednesday night, Nov. 27, from 5 p.m. until about 9 p.m., we are prepping food and setting up the Bianchi Center for all the guests,” Hanko said, adding that the Lions Club would welcome people then as well.

Every small donation of time will help, he said, as it is an event with plenty of moving parts, which all have to come together in time to host a traditional holiday meal, complete with turkey and all the trimmings.

On Thanksgiving day itself, he said they can always use some extra help in the kitchen for last minute food prep and serving the meal.

“You can sign up for the whole day or you can sign up for one of two time slots, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., or 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.,” Hanko noted.

And, he said, monetary donations of any kind are always appreciated. They can be mailed to Oakdale Lions Club, P.O. Box 550, Oakdale, CA 95361 with ‘Spirit of Oakdale’ included in the memo line.

“Oakdale Community Sharing will be bringing pallets of food, a variety of canned goods and dry goods that people can take with them,” Hanko said.

They will also make an extra Thanksgiving meal ‘to go’ for those attending the dinner, if they want to take a second one when they leave. Any leftover food from the event will be picked up by officials from the Modesto Gospel Mission and utilized in their outreach programs.

Hanko said there are some volunteers that come back each year to help out, including the local Boy Scouts, who assist in multiple ways during the event, and a crew that spends a lot of their time on Wednesday night peeling potatoes ahead of the Thursday meal.

For more information, or to volunteer or donate, contact Hanko at 209-247-6609. You can also email matthanko@gmail.com or scan the QR code on the Spirit of Oakdale flyers posted around the community.