CHIMACUM — Seven turkeys, five hams, 20 pounds of stuffing and voluminous mounds of mashed potatoes, carrots, salad, rolls and pie.

If your mouth is watering already, get it while it’s hot between noon and 3 p.m. today at the annual Tri-Area Community Center Thanksgiving Dinner.

The community center is at 10 West Valley Road, and the free, public feast, to say the least, drew 275 families with children, and seniors without families, on Thanksgiving Day in 2007.

“We’ve always had enough and we’ve never run out of food,” said Hugh Murphy, a volunteer with St. Vincent de Paul, which co-sponsors the event with Olympic Community Action Programs.

“It’s a very congenial affair.

“We try to give people a reasonable portion. And they can come back for second and thirds.”

Murphy, who on Wednesday was carving turkeys and hams smoked at Dos Okies restaurant in Port Townsend, said he expects more people will turn out this year, because the economic downturn has hit home.

But the dinner is not just for the needy.

“We have families with kids, and seniors in wheelchairs,” he said.

Kala Point residents Bud and Pat Peterson have been event’s main cooks for more than 10 years, he said.

Father-daughter team, Jim Schoessler of Port Hadlock and Jaime Smith of Edmonds, has been baking the dressing for the past seven dinners.

They are among a force of about 50 volunteers, he said, who are split up in shifts to avoid crowding the community centers “compact” kitchen, he said.

“The spirit of Thanksgiving permeates the whole event,” Murphy said.

St. Vincent de Paul and OlyCAP throw a similar event on Christmas Day that includes table decorations compliments of county garden clubs and musicians such as Quilcene’s Andy Mackie, show up to entertain.

________

Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.