34th Annual Thanksgiving Day Buffet At The DECC

DULUTH, Minn. — The College of Saint Scholastica has been hosting Thanksgiving Day Buffet for 34 years.

Every year thousands are provided with a free traditional Thanksgiving meal.

“It’s been a great day, a lot of people we see year after year are here, some of the kids that we watched kind of grow up are now volunteering. So it’s been a lot of fun,” said Monica Hendrickson, organizer for the CSS Thanksgiving Buffet.

Each meal includes classic Thanksgiving food, such as turkey, potatoes, stuffing and more.

The meal serves as a way to give back to the community and provide warm food to anyone in need.

“It’s a blessing, my background is that I’m not as fortunate as some, I’ve had to eat at places where this was the only place I could get something to eat, to see some of the people that I know from there, it’s a blessing,” said Riley Gibson, a guest.

Volunteers started preparing food a week ahead of time. Up to 7,000 meals are served each year, and 1,200 meals are delivered the week of Thanksgiving.

“There’s so much history, so many stories, we have such a great crew of volunteer leadership, and it means a lot to us to be able to keep providing this,” said Hendrickson.

Organizers say the annual event wouldn’t be possible without the generosity of volunteers.

“I’ve been volunteering with my family since probably I was 12 and we kind of learned about it and came down one Thanksgiving and we met amazing people,” said Martyn Dahl, volunteer. “It’s such a great community, I just love volunteering and making the holiday happy for other people as well.”

Ahead of the buffet Volunteers from Minnesota power helped peel 1,800 pounds of potatoes, and the Duluth Coast Guard helped fry dozens of turkeys.

Even people dining on meals offered to help with the operation.

“We just had some diners that were like hey, we want to come back and help you clean up-, and I’m like Yes! So it’s great to have people that are here and enjoying a meal and they’re going to come back and help out, and this truly is a community event, we’ve had anything from $5 donated to a couple of tanks of propane we needed, to up to all of our dinner rolls and cake. So it’s everyone coming together and that’s what Duluth is all about,” said Hendrickson

After the buffet Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank re-distributes any remaining food left over.