Moorhead’s Traditional Thanksgiving Community Feast on Break for 2017

Trinity Lutheran Church and St. Joseph's Catholic Church did not host their annual Thanksgiving Dinner

MOORHEAD, Minn. — Thanksgiving can be all about tradition, however there’s one tradition in the Moorhead area people didn’t see this year.

Trinity Lutheran Church and St. Joseph’s Catholic Church did not host their annual Thanksgiving Dinner.

The Thanksgiving tradition that has been a staple in the Moorhead community for the last 22 years was canceled this year.

“Unfortunately, this year we, at both Trinity and at St. Joe’s, weren’t able to find people who were willing to step forward and take charge of planning and organizing the event,” said Pastor Matt Peterson of Trinity Lutheran Church.

Peterson says the annual tradition brought a sense of community for not only the people who came to dinner, but also those who volunteered to serve.

“Last year, we served 500 people in our building and then delivered another 300 meals to the people in the community of Moorhead,” he said.

Peterson says the volunteers who had been in charge of the meal for more than two decades decided to hand off the responsibility, but no one was able to step up to the task.

He says it’s not about a lack of leadership or service at either church, just bad timing.

“We do have passionate leaders in our congregation,” Peterson said. “It’s just the timing of this particular year for the Thanksgiving meal didn’t work out for us. ”

However, Peterson says while 2017 didn’t work out for this turkey day, the community should know the churches are hoping to bring back the tradition.

“We’re very hopeful that it will come back,” Peterson said. “We have faith that we’ll be able to do the meal again next year.”