Ocean City-Upper Township club provides sit-down dinner in Marmora
MARMORA — The Rotary Club of Ocean City and Upper Township has had a simple Thanksgiving goal for the past 11 years: no one should have to be alone on the holiday.
Since 2014, the club members have been sponsoring a midday Thanksgiving lunch. The Sentinel caught up with some of the volunteers Thursday morning as they prepared at Trinity United Methodist Church in Marmora.
Rotarian Sallie Godfrey, who chairs the event, said before they initiated the lunch, the pastor told her the church had been giving out food baskets.
“But if you’re 85 years old and you’re sitting there with a basket of food and a frozen turkey, what are you going to do? So come in, sit down, talk to people, get a cooked meal,” Godfrey said. “The idea is the community part of it. You’re not eating alone.”
She said some 60 to 80 people join the volunteers at the church for the sit-down meal and the volunteers provide another 150 meals for takeouts.
“Most of the supplies we buy and the turkeys are donated by members of the community and members of the Rotary Club,” Godfrey said. Someone also donated eight hams, so that was added to lunch this Thanksgiving.
“This year the club didn’t accept frozen turkeys as donations because it was too much for one person. Pat (Pacifico) would cook 22 turkeys,” Godfrey said. This year, members of the club and a couple bakeries offered to cook some of the turkeys for us.” Baked by the Ocean bakery in Marmora cooked 10 of the turkeys for the club.
“We had three chefs this year come in last night and break down the turkeys for us, and that was a blessing because they got the turkeys, they cut the hams, and they were done in two or three hours. Normally, it’s six to eight hours for us, at least. I think today we’ll probably have maybe 30 volunteers off and on,” Godfrey said.
“I don’t want people to be home by themselves. I would rather them come out and enjoy a meal instead of sitting home and watching the parade and being lonely,” Godfrey said.
“Rotary has this every year,” Godfrey’s sister, Susan Godfrey said. “And when people realize this is for them, that it’s not because they can’t afford it, it’s because they want to be with people.
“It makes me feel good to be able to help,” she said. “What else would I be doing?”
Pacifico joked that he was only there “because I need a free meal.”
“I just can’t cook for one person, so this is great,” he said. “I’ve been doing this since the original.”
Pacifico said for years he and John Connahan used to do all the cooking, “but it’s nice to have help because I’m getting older.”
Asked if he got experience cooking for such large groups, say, in the Army, he smiled. “No, I’m Italian. I come from a big family.”
There’s no cooking for that big family now.
“We’re all over the place so we don’t get together,” Pacifico said. “It’s nice to come out here and talk to the older people who are like shut-ins. It’s nice to see them come out and smile. They sit there and they’ll get that extra cup of coffee or a piece of pie and it’s just enjoyable.”
Pacifico said people who come to the Thanksgiving lunch don’t forget the experience or him.
“If I’m walking into a Wawa, they remember my name and they’ll wave to me,” he said. “They’ll say, ‘I had a great meal.’ That feels great.”
“I originated doing this one with Pat years ago,” Connahan said. “Let’s just give back to the community and make sure everybody’s got a place to go and everybody has a good meal. That’s what’s important.”
He added that cooking for so many people was a different aspect of food preparation, but it was gratifying.
“There are a lot of people who come in that don’t have a place to go and there’s a lot of people who can’t afford it and there’s a lot of people that would normally just be in their house by themselves,” he said. “We don’t care who comes, just as long as they have a place to go.”
Bill Felton was taking part in his first Rotary Thanksgiving lunch after joining the club a few years ago.
“The reason I joined is that I love helping people,” he said. “It’s very gratifying. We were here last night for a few hours breaking down turkeys. I think that it’s just good to be with a lot of people on Thanksgiving.
“We used to have big family Thanksgiving dinners when my grandmother was alive, but unfortunately she passed and we don’t have that any more so it’s nice to come down here and do it,” Felton said.
Volunteer Sue Antonczak said she wouldn’t miss the event.
“I don’t think anybody should be alone. I’m here to pay it forward.”
– STORY and PHOTO by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
