Brainerd American Legion Prepping for Annual Thanksgiving Community Meal

The Brainerd American Legion was hard at work on Wednesday afternoon finishing up preparations for their free annual Thanksgiving community meal.

With assistance from the Brainerd Elks Lodge, Brainerd Eagles, Brainerd VFW, and first responders who will help deliver the meals for the holidays, volunteers are spending the waning days before the holidays at the Brainerd American Legion giving back to their community and doing what they can to ensure that as many families as possible enjoy a full, Thanksgiving meal.

“We have spots that’ll do 15 [meals] because they’re having all their family over,” said Janelle Lacy, Thanksgiving Community Meal Chair Club Manager. “We go out to Crosby, we have a big 70 order for Crosby. So yeah, we’ll go up Nisswa, Fort Ripley, Pillager, so we do a pretty big area. We have 1,400-plus meals. We’ll probably get another hundred today. So we’re going to hit that 1,500 mark again, which will be our third year in a row.”

While plenty of patrons place orders for pickup at the Brainerd American Legion’s outside station, many within the community cannot make the drive, which is where organizations within Crow Wing County step in to volunteer their services.

“This is a huge team effort by a lot of volunteers. People look forward to it every year,” said Kevin Stunek, Brainerd American Legion Post 255 Former Commander. “Baxter Police, Brainerd Police, Crow Wing County Sheriff, Brainerd Fire, and Minnesota State Patrol, and many other volunteers who help deliver.”

First responders will arrive at the Legion in their emergency vehicles at 9 a.m. to deliver meals all over the Brainerd Lakes Area.

“We do have a trailer out front that we run out of,” explained Lacy. “So we’re running food, we’re boxing it, bagging it, running it out to the trailer, and running it out to all the squads in the fire department.”

Over 100 volunteers take time out of their days to help make the machine that is Brainerd’s annual Thanksgiving community meal run. For them, the best part is seeing everything come together for the 1,500 or more families they serve.

“My favorite part is after Thanksgiving is over and everybody’s had their meals and everybody’s happy,” added cook Richard Von Ruden. “Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the cooking of it, but I would say after it’s all been said and done and everything’s taken care of, after Thanksgiving is probably the best part. We got 5,000 happy people.”

The Brainerd American Legion, Brainerd Elks Lodge, Brainerd VFW, and Brainerd Eagles all sponsor the Thanksgiving community meal. Meal pickup at the Legion will go from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Thursday.