By Signe K. Skinion

Fellowship is the main course this Thanksgiving as the Newman Center and the China Queen hand out free dinners to community members.

The Newman Center, 715 S. Washington, is holding their 27th annual Thanksgiving dinner for the community on November 23. Deb Watson, Thanksgiving coordinator at the center, said the purpose of the dinner is fellowship, and everyone is invited.

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The dinner began 27 years ago when Father Bill Longust was the Newman Center director, Watson said. He saw there were several international students on campus that didn’t have a place to go for Thanksgiving or didn’t know what the holiday meant. He invited six international students to his house for that Thanksgiving, and the tradition gradually grew throughout the years.

Watson said there will be a traditional Thanksgiving dinner served with turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy.

The dinner is open to the public, and we will be serving exactly what you would expect to see on a Thanksgiving dinner table, Watson said. Our cook has been doing the dinner for 10 years or more, and she has it down to an art.

The dinner at the Newman Center is open to the public, and everyone will be served, Watson said.

We see people from every walk of life at the dinner, Watson said. There will be students who don’t or can’t go home for the holiday, homeless people from the Good Samaritan homeless shelter, elderly people who have no relatives in the area, and even some University officials. You don’t have to be poor or needy to come. All you need to be is hungry and want fellowship.

I think there should be more attention to the less fortunate in the area, and I am hoping more of the area businesses will help out the community residents who are in need, Ni said.

Watson said the only thing missing right now for the dinner is volunteers.

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This dinner depends solely on contributions from the outside and volunteers, Watson said. Usually we have enough volunteers. There have even been some years where we had to turn volunteers away because we had so many. This year our big need is volunteers especially those who will stay to help clean up after the dinner.

The China Queen, 718 South Illinois Ave., is also providing a special Thanksgiving dinner for the handicapped people of the area on November 22.

Sing Kong Ni, owner and operator of the China Queen, said Thanksgiving is a special time for people, and he is trying to give something special to the community.

Thanksgiving is supposed to be a family thing, Ni said. China Queen will have a free light lunch box for the handicapped the day before Thanksgiving.

Included in the lunch box will be crab rangoon, crispy chicken and rice, Ni said. He said he hopes by doing this it will raise community awareness of those in need.

The Newman Center will be serving Thanksgiving dinner from 12 p.m. until 2 p.m. on Thursday, November 23.

China Queen will be serving the lunch box from a.m. until 3 p.m. and 5 until 8 on Wednesday, November 22.