Staff writer
This month Luba Holm-Brinkman is busy planning a Thanksgiving dinner. While she will include family members on her list of guests, Holm-Brinkman will also be calculating the amount of food needed to serve a couple hundred more people.
The holiday meal she is planning is Peabody’s fourth annual Community Dinner. The meal is free to all and will be served from 5 to 7 p.m. Nov. 22 in the high school cafeteria.
Holm-Brinkman has been in charge of the event since its inception in 2010.
“We usually serve about 200 to 250 people,” she said. “Plus we offer carry-out meals to people who cannot get to the school.”
The menu will include turkey and dressing, potatoes with gravy, green beans, salad, rolls, dessert, and drink.
“We buy everything except the salads and desserts. Those are donated by volunteers who want to contribute to the meal,” she said.
Holm-Brinkman decided to try organizing a community dinner several years ago. A number of times her daughters in Wichita mentioned they ought to sign up as a family to help serve at a holiday meal for less fortunate people.
“Somehow a plan to do that never materialized, but I started thinking about trying something like it here,” she said. “I was hoping for an event that would draw us together as a community. I felt God was giving me a nudge. I felt He would help me find a way and He has.
“The Lord has blessed me and I want to give something to others in return for His many blessings.”
Her children thought the idea of giving back to the community where they grew up was a terrific one and signed on to the project with enthusiasm.
Holm-Brinkman also shared the plan with friends who agreed it could be done and wanted to help.
“At the first dinner, people thought it was a meal to help those in need, but it is for all of us. We need joyous times to come together as a community. So we hope everyone will just come and eat and enjoy themselves,” she said.
She credited Noreen Weems with helping her keep things organized, the school administrators and staff for use of the school facilities and their help promoting the dinner, and members of the community churches who help with the event. Holm-Brinkman is grateful to family and friends who step up and bring in desserts and salads, help serve and clean up, or deliver meals to shut-ins.
“It is all good,” she said. “We have never turned anyone away. Every year it all gets done.”
Anyone wishing to help by delivering meals, bringing a dessert or salad, helping serve or clean up should contact Holm-Brinkman at 620-983-2202.
Donations may be made to the Community Thanksgiving Organization at Peabody State Bank. Anyone with questions or in need of more information should contact Holm-Brinkman.