At the Butte Rescue Mission, preparations are underway to give people and families in need a real Thanksgiving meal.
Misty Johnston expects an increase of people to get a meal at the mission then there were last year. Last year, the rescue mission served 150 people. This year, they are preparing to serve 300 people.
"Oh the need has definitely gone up. COVID has really hit everybody. Our numbers from last year to this year have doubled in how many people we serve a month." said Johnston.
Volunteers have been hard at work preparing twelve turkeys for the Thanksgiving dinner. St. James hospital donated 48 turkeys to the Butte Rescue Mission
"We expect to actually use every one of them. We don’t want anybody to go away hungry. We want everybody to have a big plate like you do at Thanksgiving—just so full you have to go home and take a nap." said Johnston.
There will be a closed meal to residents of the rescue mission from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The public will be welcomed from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Meals will be served hot and can be eaten at the rescue mission or taken to go.
"There's a lot of times that a mother or a father will come here and they’ll ask for four or five meals to go so they can take it home and be with their children for the holidays." said Johnston.
Johnston says they couldn’t have done this without help from the community.
"I don’t think we had to spend too much money on this meal because people in the community were so caring and understanding to our need and so they filled all of those gaps that we needed to make sure we had a great meal for everybody" said Johnston.
