CLARK COUNTY, Wash. — On Thanksgiving morning, part of the Clark County Fairgrounds turned into a production line where 75 volunteers teamed up to prepare and package 2,500 free holiday dinners for those in need.
It’s a Thanksgiving tradition that Mark Matthias has been orchestrating since 2017 and under his watch, every second counts.
“It doesn’t stop… There’s no interruption,” said Donna, one of the volunteers in charge of making sure each tray of food is refilled so no time is wasted. Over the laughter and music, she could be heard calling out: “MASH LINE TWO!” or “TURKEY LINE ONE!”
“So, once we start, we’re done in two hours and 15 minutes… They’re doing 600 meals per hour on each line,” Matthias said of the streamlined effort, a nod to his roots as the owner of Beaches Restaurant in Vancouver.
Matthias is retiring at the end of this year, but he will continue the free Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners out of the fairgrounds.
“I can’t think of a better place to be on Thanksgiving,” he said.
Once the meals are packaged, volunteers load them into their cars and drive them to more than 40 locations including a Vancouver food pantry, where people like Denise are waiting.
“It means the world… I’m going to feed some friends and family that are homeless,” she said.
“I’m alone out here without any family, so this is the closest to Thanksgiving,” added Ed, who picked up two meals for he and his fiancée.
“I’ve been taken care of by a community of people that, even though they don’t know me and don’t see me every day, they still care about me,” said Parker, who is homeless on the streets of Vancouver and reminds us of the true meaning behind it all.
