A record crowd comes to Salvation Army dinner

Brynnleigh Jones is only 8. But according to her father, she's already an old hand at cooking for a crowd.

Bill Jones said he and his daughter made between 16 and 20 gallons of chicken and dumplings for the Salvation Army's annual community Thanksgiving dinner.

"She's always helped roll [the dumplings]," Jones said Thursday as he dished up two helpings for someone to take back to a table. "This is her first year we've let her help serve."

Brynnleigh's efforts will help her earn a badge for her Brownie uniform, said Jones, whose wife and son also helped with the meal Thursday.

Margaret Kinder of Cape Girardeau was impressed with the Joneses' handiwork.

Bill Jones dishes up a bowl of chicken and dumplings, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2013, during the Salvation Army's Thanksgiving day lunch in Cape Girardeau. (Laura Simon)

"The dumplings are very good," she said.

Kinder, who said she has been a member of the Salvation Army's Home League mission for about 14 years, was among more than 2,100 community members who turned out for the meal Thursday.

Sharing a table with her were Erica Gray of Cape Girardeau and her 2-year-old son, Jase, who still was getting the hang of using silverware as he sat on his mother's lap, maneuvering a big forkful of mashed potatoes into his mouth and using a knife to pick up a bite of bread.

Gray, a bell ringer for the Salvation Army, said the meal gave her somewhere to spend Thanksgiving after she lost her grandmother to lung cancer.

"My grandmother passed away a year and a half ago, and that's where we always went for Thanksgiving," she said.

Crysta Ford, 7, has a laugh while eating a slice of pumpkin pie, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2013, during the Salvation Army's Thanksgiving day lunch in Cape Girardeau. (Laura Simon)

Darlene Allen, who helped coordinate the dinner, said volunteers fed 2,132 people Thursday -- a record for the organization, which began hosting a Thanksgiving meal in 1983.

"We started with, like, 200 and thought, 'Oh, my gosh, this is unreal,'" she said.

Salvation Army Capt. Ronnie Amick said the organization relies on volunteers to feed the growing crowd.

"The volunteers are the ones that make it go," Amick said. "It's really a community thing. ... Without the volunteers, we wouldn't be able to do it."

Allen and Amick said some volunteers have received services from the Salvation Army in the past and are taking the opportunity to return the favor, while others have turned the event into a family tradition.

"They're giving back. We have a lot of families that there's three generations of family here," Allen said.

Amick said people began calling in September to offer their time.

"It's a family outing," he said. " ... One group of volunteers ... were here because their 9-year-old daughter said they wouldn't go anywhere else."

Using a smoker borrowed from Old Hickory Pits, volunteers began smoking turkeys in early November, Allen said. By Thursday, they were ready for the crowd, with 88 smoked and two baked turkeys, 37 pans of stuffing, 27 hams and "endless green beans," she said, along with desserts donated by Isle Casino Cape Girardeau, My Daddy's Cheesecake, Schnucks, the 4-H Club and many individual donors.

"It's priceless. You can't put a dollar value on people's time and the love that is shown down here," Allen said.

In addition to the meal, attendees could pick up coats, hats and gloves.

A coat drive at Schnucks last week brought in more than 3,300 items, Amick said.

The dinner drew attendees of every imaginable age and background, Allen said.

"We have all ages. It's not just one particular group of people," she said. "We have everything from babies to toddlers to grandmas and grandpas and the elderly."

epriddy@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

701 Good Hope St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.