JESSAMINE COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — The Jessamine County Homeless Coalition is getting ready for its 5th annual free community Thanksgiving dinner. It's happening at the Jessamine County Public Library on Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Executive director of the coalition Johnny Templin said the dinner is “my single favorite day of the year for what we do down here in Nicholasville.”
Templin expects the coalition to serve around 1,000 meals this year.
“We do a sit-down restaurant style dignified service thing where our young children and youth bring you your meals, bring you your drinks, ask you how things are going,” Templin said.
Wednesday’s dinner also has a drive-through option for people who want to avoid the crowds. This week’s community Thanksgiving is partially propelled by a day of giving this past weekend.
“It was a group of nine Baptist pastors here in the county,” said Pastor Moses Radford. “We came together and made plans to have a service together to raise funds for the homeless shelter.”
On Sunday afternoon, the service raised $5,010.10, just eclipsing their goal.
“It's almost 6 weeks' worth of operating expense for us,” Templin shared. “That'll carry us through some point in January.”
“Yesterday was just a greater effort collectively for us to do something together,” Radford added.
Turkeys are already being prepared for Wednesday’s meal, with around 140 volunteers set to serve. Volunteer spots are already full for this week’s dinner, which is a great problem to have.
However, Templin said they do have another need for future volunteers for their Christmas dinner, which is coming up in just three weeks.
