ANNUAL THANKSGIVING CELEBRATION

Community to receive dinner leftovers

For Dining Services at Waynesburg University, the annual Thanksgiving is one of the biggest events of the year. The dinner itself is prepared to serve to around 900 people, said Lesley Davis, director of Dining Services.

“Last year we [served] 869 and that’s including faculty and staff and students,” Davis said.

As of Tuesday of this week, there were 600 people signed up to attend.

To prepare and serve that many people, Davis said the amount of food is quite substantial and can take time to complete.

“We [order] 50 turkeys and they are 10 pounds apiece,” Davis said. “We do 128 pies, 500 pounds of potatoes, 30 gallons of gravy, 2,000 rolls, 200 pounds of corn and 200 pounds of green beans.”

The time it takes to prepare that much food can vary depending on the dish, Davis said. The preparation for different items such as turkey and corn begins at staggering times depending how close the target date is away.

“The week before, I need to bring in the pies and the turkeys just to make sure I get those high quantities,” said Davis. “We started cooking all the turkeys on Sunday and on [Tuesday] we went into slicing mode so we will get all the turkeys sliced and ready to go, and it will take the baker two days to make the pies and the stuffing has already been made.”

Davis also said that due to lack of oven space the corn will be cooked in the beehive and then transferred down to the cafeteria along with the rolls and butter.

“That stuff is already pre-made,” said Davis. “And it’s on cart’s ready to be rolled out.”

In addition to pre-making the food, the dining services staff also has to preset the entire cafeteria in hold the mass quantities of people.

“We spend four days rolling silverware,” said Davis. “We have to roll 900 sets of silverware and we have make sure there enough pitchers [of iced tea and water].”

After the Thanksgiving dinner is over, Davis is faced with the issue of giving away leftover food. Davis said that some of the food is donated to individuals who assist in taking care of other residents in the community while the the rest is given to churches around Waynesburg.

“We do prepare for that,” said Davis. “Other leftovers we send to St. Anne’s, because we donate every Tuesday to St. Anne’s.”

Davis also mentioned that if there is any leftover turkey after the donations are made then they will make it into turkey soup.

Davis attributes her precise planning to the 10 years she’s been in charge of running it.

“I kind of have it down to a science,” said Davis. “We have a list of what we do, how we do it and what times we do it, so it just comes down to execution.”