The CommUnity Thanksgiving of Etowah, which fed over 10,900 community members last year, is set to dissolve its charity prior to this holiday season.
“After 27 years of serving our community with Alabama’s largest Thanksgiving Day meal, serving nearly 11,000 plates last year, the board has made the tough decision to end the event,” Craig Scott, vice president of CommUnity Thanksgiving, said. “Rising costs, declining volunteer numbers and increasing demand made it unsustainable.”
Ending the event was a unanimous decision made by the nine board members three weeks ago, when Darlene Harcrow announced this would be her final year of service. Harcrow said she was surprised that her stepping down meant the end of the organization, as the decision had not been contemplated all year but came in the moment.
“We feel like our season of doing it the way we’ve done it is over,” Harcrow said. “And the size that we were, there would be no way that… the board could take on feeding, or even with the volunteers, could take on feeding people throughout the year.”
The gathering began at East Gadsden’s New Liberty Tabernacle of Praise church in 1998 and became a 501(c)(3), a “social welfare” charity organization, in 2021 under the leadership of Harcrow, according to records from the Department of the Treasury.
Since the sole purpose of the charity is to feed community members on Thanksgiving, it must dissolve when it no longer fulfills that purpose, Harcrow said. The board could choose to adapt the charity to serve families year-round. However, Harcrow said this would require more paperwork and many more volunteers.
When talking with the board members, Scott said he believes the event had become “too big for our britches.”
“To me, CommUnity Thanksgiving had become much more commercialized rather than a neighborly Thanksgiving meal to celebrate together,” Scott said. “CommUnity Thanksgiving has lost its sense of ‘unity in our community.’ It was disheartening to see folks drive up, run in and grab 10 or 20 meals only to jump back in their cars and be gone without even a hint of a thank you.”
Harcrow called on not just churches and community leaders, but also neighbors with a heart for giving to step up and volunteer to help those in need.
After the 2011 tornado, Harcrow brought food from her freezer to a demolished property and set up a grill, she said. They fed over 300 people that day using only the contents of her deep freezer.
“I say that not to brag on myself, but to say that if somebody has a heart to do something, just do it,” Harcrow said. “…Start where you’re at.. No matter where we are, what season we are in, we can always feed somebody else.”
The personal connection was lacking at the event, according to Scott.
Although Harcrow said it is sad for the board to end the event, she is excited to spend Thanksgiving with her family at her house, which is not something she has been able to do since she began volunteering with the charity. She said the volunteers did their best to spread love to everyone, but no matter how big the event became, there was always someone they were missing.
The charity ended with a surplus of $3,600 from last year’s event, along with a large quantity of supplies that had been collected over the years, according to Scott. Board members will meet on Friday to allocate the funds to another charity. The goal is to provide food to the community, no matter who serves it.
“Don’t wait for somebody else to do it,” Harcrow said. “If God’s telling you to do it, rise up and be who God called you to be.”
The event will take a new direction with Pastor Joe Simmons of New Liberty Tabernacle of Praise in East Gadsden, and Scott said he is encouraged by the vision Simmons has.
Simmons said he is excited about the future and wants to serve this ministry with a north, east, south, west, and central perspective. He wants to bring pastors from all over together to serve their constituents and develop relationships with their communities.
“He tells us to serve the least,” Simmons said. “When we’ve done that, we’ve done it to Him, so that’s what we should be doing.”
This Saturday at 9 a.m., Simmons is hosting a meeting for pastors at his church to discuss preparations for the Thanksgiving holiday. He asks that community members encourage their pastors to attend the meetings so their church will know its role.
The decision is sudden, he said, and it would be different if they had a year to prepare, but the event is too important to the community to let it cease. The responsibility should be in the body of Christ, and they should step up to the plate, he said.
Although it seems like tribulation, Simmons said he believes everything happens for a reason, and this is God’s way of bringing the body of Christ to another level of “oneness.”
“I believe he’s bringing us together as one, and how do you get to know each other?” Simmons said. “The best place to get to know each other is in work.”
As followers of Christ, Christians should share the spirit of Christ everywhere, he said, starting from the most needy point.
“I know we are doing a whole lot in our city to fluff up the top; it looks good,” Simmons said. “But when a plant grows, it first grows roots down at the bottom, and then it begins to develop fruit. You don’t want to get too fruit-heavy or the tree will fall down.”
Last year, the organization handed out just four shy of 11,000 plates through delivery, dine-in and take-out, according to Scott. The total cost of the event was $48,000, with $24,000 covering the cost of food, according to Harcrow.
The remaining $24,000 covered additional operational expenses, including maintaining the website and purchasing cookware. Board members collected no administrative fees.
“I don’t know how it’s going to play out this year,” Harcrow said. “I honestly don’t know, which is very hard for me because I like to know what happens next. But at this time, it’s just one of those things. Just trusting that God’s going to put it on people’s hearts to do exactly what they’re called to do.”
The charity ended with a surplus of $3,600 from last year’s event, along with a large quantity of supplies that had been collected over the years, according to Scott. Board members will meet on Friday to allocate the funds to another charity. The goal is to provide food to the community, no matter who serves it.
“It’s time now for our churches and for our community leaders to rise up and become a little personal with their community,” Harcrow said. “…God told you a long time ago, if you feed their belly, their spirits are open to be able to be taught and loved and brought to him.”
Larry Avery, city council member, said he appreciated Harcrow using the words “rise up.”
“That’s a challenge calling to our community churches to step up and rise up,” Avery said. “It amazes me how we just minister inside the walls when our work is outside of the walls.”
He said the challenge was what he needed to encourage him to start grilling for his neighbours again, as he used to, right in his front yard.
