‘GIVING BACK’
Vega Café again hands out 300 Thanksgiving dinners in Norris
Vega Cafe manager Liz Cochran, left, bags up some of the Thanksgiving dinners for people waiting in line on Wednesday, Nov. 23, as cafe owner John Fletcher looks on. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
Those receiving the food were treated to individual dinner plates of fresh smoked turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, a fresh-baked roll, and sliced carrots with peas. Chocolate-chip cookies were also given out in separate little bags, for dessert.
There were at least 30 people already waiting in the line when restaurant owner and chef John Fletcher and manager Liz Cochran opened the front door of the restaurant beginning at noon to pass out the meals in single-serving aluminum containers, ready to be heated up and eaten.
This year’s Thanksgiving handout was the third for Vega and Fletcher, who began the gesture in 2020 during the pandemic with 200 meals given out. He prepared 300 dinners for Thanksgiving 2021, and repeated that this year.
“We were very new in business … when the pandemic hit, and when we had to shut down in March [2020] for the pandemic, I thought that probably was going to be the end for us,” Fletcher said last year.
“But we decided to offer takeout food while our dining room was closed, and that saved us,” he said. “The community really responded well and helped save us until we could start opening for dine-in service again.”
That’s why he decided to give out the 200 Thanksgiving dinners in 2020, as a way to give back to the community for its support, he said.
Now in its third year, the program has become popular in Norris.
“This is for anyone, including people on fixed budgets, or home alone, or first-responders – anyone who needed a meal,” Fletcher said. “We decided to close the restaurant for the week just to do this.”
Fletcher did accept donations in advance of the dinner handout, to help defray some of his costs, he said.