Giving on Thanksgiving: Free holiday meal served to hundreds

FARMINGTON – With a good-sized hungry crowd waiting out in the cafeteria, volunteers in the steam-filled kitchen put the finishing touches on a Thanksgiving dinner for 400 today.

This is the ninth year Rufus and Charlene Cox of New Sharon have organized a free Thanksgiving dinner for the residents of greater Franklin County. Of those 400, about 350 meals will be delivered to families from Eustis/Stratton to Livermore Falls by an army of volunteers.

The traditional Thanksgiving fare, served with all the trimmings, is sponsored by the Scottish Rite Masons, but Rufus Cox is quick to credit the many people donating food and the 100 or more volunteers who cook, serve, box up and deliver the meals on their Thanksgiving day. He also wants to thank Mt. Blue RSU 9 for allowing it to be prepared and held at the high school. 

“It’s sponsored by the Masons, but I’ve tried to make it about bringing the community together to do it,” he said looking across the busy kitchen.

The couple started helping with the annual dinner 12 years ago when the Scottish Rite Masons Valley of Augusta held a free Thanksgiving dinner at Gardiner High School as part of its Family Life Program. Rufus Cox saw a need for the same thing in the Farmington area and started a free dinner here.

“That first year we served 50 people and thought that was great,” Rufus Cox said. This year, they expect to serve eight times that amount, thanks to donations, including the 22 turkeys that is providing 440 pounds of meat. Pies, lots of pies were handmade by many local bakers. Squash, donated in the past by one farmer, fell through this year due to health reasons. Word got out that lots of squash was needed and that night a pickup truck’s worth of squash was promised and later delivered. The 450 pounds of squash donated was enough for both the Farmington operation and the one going on today in Gardiner.

This will be the last year Rufus Cox will be at helm of the annual Thanksgiving meal. It’s time, he said, to step aside, giving the organizational duties to Sherry Tompkins. He added he will still be helping out next year, but wants to see the Thanksgiving meal continue on. 

Outside, loading two big boxes of meals to be delivered to the Jay and Livermore Falls area, Jake Gerard and Wendy Ames of Weld have been volunteering to deliver meals on Thanksgiving for more than five years.

“We like to do it,” Ames said. “It feels good to do something for other people.”