Benton church to host community meal Thanksgiving Day

Making plans for the third annual Community Thanksgiving Meal at Benton First United Methodist Church are, front row, from left, Holly Crutchfield, Teresa Rushing, Rebecca Fox, Beverly Brister and Greg Gillis; and back row, the Rev. Zeke Allen, associate pastor at the church. The volunteers will serve the Thanksgiving meal from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at the church, 200 N. Market St.
Making plans for the third annual Community Thanksgiving Meal at Benton First United Methodist Church are, front row, from left, Holly Crutchfield, Teresa Rushing, Rebecca Fox, Beverly Brister and Greg Gillis; and back row, the Rev. Zeke Allen, associate pastor at the church. The volunteers will serve the Thanksgiving meal from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at the church, 200 N. Market St.

BENTON — Members of Benton First United Methodist Church will give thanks Thursday for their blessings and hope many in the community will join them in the celebration.

“This is our third annual Community Thanksgiving Meal,” said Beverly Brister, chairwoman of the event, which is sponsored by the missions committee of the church. “It is free and open to all.

“We don’t want anyone to be alone on this holiday,” she said. “Holidays can be sad times if you don’t have a place to go.”

The meal will be served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Christian Life Center. Enter the church, which is at 200 N. Market St., from the Sevier Street entrance, she instructed.

The menu will include smoked turkey breast, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, homemade cranberry sauce, rolls and homemade desserts.

“We have the best dressing ever. It’s a three-day process to make it,” Brister said.

“Our neighbors at First Baptist Church of Benton bake all the dressing. We don’t have the oven capacity here for baking 20 pans of dressing,” she said.

“And our friends at Parkview United Methodist Church help us out by providing a huge variety of homemade desserts,” Brister said.

“People all over the community, people from many different churches, join us in providing this Thanksgiving meal to the community,” she said. “We could not do it without them.”

Brister said Smokey Joe’s Bar-B-Q will smoke about half of the 70 turkey breasts that have been purchased this year. Church members will smoke the remaining turkeys.

Brister said the church normally serves about 600 meals.

“We are planning on that for this year, too,” she said.

“We will deliver meals in Benton and Bryant if people cannot get out,” she said, noting

that people in need of that service can call the church office at (501) 778-3601.

Brister said approximately 100 volunteers work to make the meal possible.

“We start working several weeks before, making the dressing and freezing it,”

she said. “Then we start putting it all together on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. And of course, we have a cleanup crew working after the meal.”

Brister grew up in Malvern and has tailored this event after the one that Malvern’s First United Methodist Church sponsors every Thanksgiving.

“We use John Allen’s recipe for cranberry sauce,” she said, referring to John Allen Funk, who spearheads the effort in Malvern.

“You might say our event is a spinoff from the Malvern event,” Brister said with a laugh.

No matter what the origin, Brister said, the Community Thanksgiving Meal at Benton First United Methodist Church is now a vital part of the Benton church and its mission.

“The church is not made of four walls,” said the Rev. Zeke Allen, associate pastor. “It is made of the hearts and hands of those who help our brothers and sisters out of compassion. That is why we host this Community Thanksgiving Meal.”

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