PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Several community meals are planned across the North Olympic Peninsula today to share fully the Thanksgiving Day holiday with others.
Each event offers a home-cooked meal, holiday cheer and a chance to chat with neighbors.
The dinners:
* In Port Angeles, the annual community Thanksgiving dinner will be served at Serenity House Single Adult Shelter.
Food will be served from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the shelter, 2321 W. 18th St.
Anyone can attend, and children are welcome.
Donations are not necessary, but will be accepted.
Volunteers are welcome to help with meal preparation, which begins at 9 a.m., serving and clean-up following the dinner.
For more information or to volunteer, call Laurie Kross at 360-452-5700.
* In Sequim, the Sunshine Cafe will host its third annual free Harvest Dinner.
Cafe staff will serve oven-roasted turkey with all the trimmings and pumpkin pie.
Reservations are recommended for the meal, which will be served between noon and 5 p.m.
The cafe is located at 135 W. Washington St. and parking is located behind the restaurant.
To make a reservation or for more information call 360-683-4282.
* In Port Townsend, Thanksgiving starts at sunrise at the Salal Cafe, 643 Water St., which will fire up its ovens early to serve breakfast from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.
The breakfast will be offered in exchange for donations to the Jefferson County Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Program.
Salal Cafe has sponsored the Thanksgiving charity breakfast for 21 years, raising more than $1,300 last year alone.
To benefit the cause, cafe suppliers make food donations, while community volunteers help serve the patrons, said Pat Fitzgerald, Salal co-owner.
On the menu, is a special breakfast made with two eggs.
“It’s a challenge to cook breakfast and make Thanksgiving dinner for my own family, but I enjoy it,” said Jenny Westdal, co-owner.
“I love the people in our town, and this way I get to spend Thanksgiving with a lot of them.”
* Also in Port Townsend, Castagno’s Restaurant will open its doors at 10 a.m. at 2223 W. Sims Way.
The restaurant will provide free breakfast and dinner meals for anyone who has no other place to go.
“I just want to cook,” said restaurant owner Gail McClane. “Everyone is invited, come as you are.”
Throughout the entire day, guests can get a taste of McClane’s famous pies in addition to the regular dinner, which starts around 2 p.m.
McClane began preparation on Wednesday by baking 24 apple, blackberry, cherry, pecan and pumpkin pies.
The restaurant will charge nothing, said the owner’s 7-year-old daughter, Katie Harding, who will help serve visitors.
However, if people feel they must give money, they should donate it to the American Cancer Society, Katie said.
The restaurant picked to benefit cancer care and research after the owner’s father, Richard Brown, died of cancer in 1998.
“It’s a very good cause,” Harding said. “Big cause for our family.”
* In Chimacum, residents can join the Olympic Community Action Program’s dinner at the Tri-Area Community Center, 10 West Valley Road.
The Thanksgiving Community Dinner starts at noon, and anybody who has no other place to go is invited for a free meal of turkey, ham, potatoes, greens, rolls, desserts, coffee and tea.
The event, held over the past several years in various locations, is geared not just for needy and lonely people, but for anyone in the community, organizers said.
OlyCAP accepts donations to cover the costs of food and to fund its ongoing senior nutrition programs on the North Olympic Peninsula.
The organization accepts donations mailed to Olympic Community Action Program, P.O. Box 1540, Port Townsend, WA 98368.