Donations of 50 complete dinners

Judy’s Pantry, working with Cape food drive coordinators Jen Tinsman and Amy Lombardo, once again provided Thanksgiving feasts for 50 families in Cape Elizabeth with limited means. The dinners were distributed from our church on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

Jen’s and Amy’s food drive resulted in Cape families providing 50 boxes and containers to the Pantry, each containing a turkey and all the trimmings, including stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, rolls, pie, Jello, assorted candies and nuts, pasta, a roasting pan and even sparkling cider.

Judy’s Pantry supplemented each of the 50 boxes with beautifully decorated grocery bags filled with potatoes, carrots, onions, winter squash and apples.

The grocery bags were decorated by Lisa Stevens, her daughter and friends.

In addition to the bags of fresh produce and boxes of turkeys and all the fixings, each family who came to the Pantry could select two loaves of sweet breads from a table filled with such flavors as pumpkin, corn, poppy seed, cranberry. apple cinnamon, and banana. All of the 90 breads were prepared and donated by members of the church, coordinated by Lili Acheson. Thank you to all!

Most of the Thanksgiving dinners were picked up at the church on Tuesday, but for those who did not have transportation, dinners were driven to their homes by the Rev. Ruth Morrison and Frank Miles.

One more offering for everyone who came to the Pantry was a table filled with an assortment of Cabot cheese.

While Jen and Amy’s food drive provided the 50 turkey dinners to the pantry, many more from the drive were distributed to Portland families through the Opportunity Alliance program.

Thank you to everyone who participated in making this tradition for Judy’s Pantry possible, particularly Pantry Coordinator Nancy Miles and her many volunteers, church representative Lili Acheson, Jen Tinsman and Amy Lombardo, Jordan’s Farm, and everyone from the church who prepared and donated breads.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!