Lindsay Cox stirs stuffing mix as other volunteers help in the back area of the Hancock County Fairgrounds during the Feast of Plenty meal preparations.
Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
GREENFIELD — Steaming trays of turkey and all the Thanksgiving fixings covered tables in the exhibition hall at the Hancock County 4-H Fairgrounds on Thursday.
Volunteers stood behind those tables serving up helpings of food into containers held by their counterparts making their way through a line to create the holiday meals.
Outside, an even longer line of vehicles formed throughout the fairgrounds waiting to be filled with those meals as well as bags of groceries.
They were all there for the 16th annual Feast of Plenty, Hancock County’s Thanksgiving Day tradition that feeds thousands.
The event was drive-through and delivery again this year after being a necessity in 2020 due to COVID-19.
Jeff Muegge and his wife, the late Lisa Muegge, started the Feast of Plenty in 2005.
Joel Hungate, Lisa Muegge’s son, helped oversee the operation on Thursday.
“After having de-boned 118 turkeys, and cut up thousands of pieces of pie, and received donations for over 500 grocery bags, we’re now distributing that to the community to really serve and love on the people this Thanksgiving that need a free hot meal, need critical supplies for themselves and their family,” Hungate said.
He added it’s been incredible to watch the event go from its humble beginnings of serving 50 to 100 diners to feeding almost 3,000 every year.
Hungate admires the initiative for the way it carries on his mother’s vision and fulfills a community need.
“Everybody needs that leg up, and if we can offer just a little glimmer of hope for somebody this Thanksgiving,” he said. “We got a lot of people that are trapped in their houses with COVID, and they don’t have access to these kinds of meals if we weren’t able to bring it directly to their doorstep.”
Ty Hunt, who uses talents honed through leading nutritional services at Hancock Regional Hospital to serve as kitchen lead for the Feast of Plenty, said he and his fellow volunteers hoped to provide about 3,000 Thanksgiving meals.
“We’ll touch Hancock County and six other counties just from the generosity of this community,” Hunt said.
He gave a conservative estimate of about 400 volunteers who made this year’s feast possible.
“It’s amazing for me every year,” Hunt said, noting its 16th return. “We’ve seen kids grow up from being the ones that hand out the rolls to coming through the line. Some of them have grown up and now they have kids of their own. Sixteen years — we’ve seen a lot of growth and a lot of love come out of this building.”
He’s grateful for all the support from individuals, churches and businesses.
“This community has been very bountiful at supporting us both monetarily, and just showing up to help is a huge, huge part of this,” he said. “It’s amazing what this community does.”
Karen Harmon, who lives in the Irvington area of Indianapolis, is one of the hundreds who showed up to help on Thursday. She said she’s been volunteering for the Feast of Plenty for about five years.
“I’d heard about it, was wanting to help out, and didn’t really have anything else to do in the morning on Thanksgiving,” Harmon said as she served up scoops of green beans after cutting countless pieces of pie. “And I had time on my hands, so I came out.”
On the other side of the tables was Greenfield resident Deborah Sosbey, who returned after helping de-bone turkeys on Wednesday. She estimated she’d been helping with the Feast of Plenty since its first year.
“I have no family, my husband passed away about two years ago, so this is something fun to do,” Sosbey said as she waited in line to fill another food container. “There’s people needing help all the time. I work for the post office, so I see it a lot.”
It was cold and drizzly outside, but spirits were warm in Adrian Hampton’s truck as he and Helen Everidge waited in line to be stocked with deliveries.
“We just wanted to come out and help others out,” Hampton said. “We’re thankful for the blessings we’ve been given, just wanted to pass that along.”
