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your homegrown newspaper November 19, 2025
Vol. 22, No. 11
Free Thanksgiving dinners planned in Mission Valley communities By Joyce Lobeck
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Helping hands pg. 5
Honored pg. 6
NSF grant pg. 14
ith Thanksgiving just days away, armies of volunteers are roasting turkeys, peeling potatoes and baking pies in preparation to feed hundreds of their neighbors in traditional holiday community dinners. That’s a scene playing out in Polson, Ronan and St. Ignatius. Polson Coordinator Tracy Plaiss and lots of volunteers are hard at work preparing Polson’s traditional Thanksgiving community dinner. That includes shredding 165 loaves of bread for stuffing, roasting 100 turkeys and peeling 600 pounds of potatoes in anticipation of providing a couple thousand meals, made from scratch. The meal itself will be takeout only – sit down meals were discontinued during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and not resumed. Tracy said all are welcome to come by and get a meal, but she is limiting the number to 2,000 and is asking people to make reservations to ensure there will be enough food. To reserve a meal, call 406249-2067 by noon the Wednesday before Thanksgiving or until no more meals are available. She also will be providing a few de-
FILE PHOTO
Community members serve and assemble plates of food at a Thanksgiving dinner at the Ronan Community Center in 2019.
liveries to shut-ins who call and request a meal. The meals can be picked up between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Thanksgiving Day at the Mission Valley Elks Lodge, 512 Main St. “There’s no income guidelines,” Tracy said. “We’re happy to provide to any member
of Polson who wants a meal.” She noted that about 30 percent of the children in Polson don’t have food to eat on the weekends so her team tries to provide enough extra for families with children to get them through the four-day holiday weekend without going hungry.
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The Polson community dinners got their start 26 years ago at the senior center when Jo Durand, then the manager, heard some people wouldn’t have families to share Thanksgiving with. So she roasted a turkey see page 2