Thanksgiving meals still on the menu

Where can you get a free Thanksgiving Day meal in Clark County? Two tried-and-true options for the hungry and homeless aren’t on the table this year.

Chronis’ Restaurant and Lounge began serving Thanksgiving dinner in 1982, but the downtown Vancouver restaurant closed in April after 48 years in business. The Fraternal Order of the Eagles’ Vancouver chapter usually serves Thanksgiving breakfast, but without a working kitchen, the nonprofit had to bow out this year.

Their absence from the lineup of places offering a free Turkey Day feast comes at a time when food banks — and related social services — are experiencing a growing need.

“I feel horrible about it,” said Chuck Chronis, who owned Chronis’ Restaurant and Lounge. Due to poor health, Chronis and his wife weren’t up for the task.

Chronis’ space at 819 Main St. is being remodeled from the inside out to make way for a new tenant: a restaurant and sports bar called Pacific House.

Now 76 years old, Chronis has had two strokes and two heart attacks, along with surgery on his face and feet. The Thanksgiving dinners were a long-standing collaboration between the Chronis family and former Clark County Judge Rich Melnick, who’s taken on a new role at the state Court of Appeals in Tacoma since last year’s Thanksgiving.

“With (Chronis’) health and with everything else, it just didn’t work out this year,” said Melnick, who still lives in Clark County. “We’ll figure out something to do.”

The pair talked about possibly putting sandwiches together and handing those out to people in downtown Vancouver. Melnick said they’ve had people offer their places to host the dinner. None of the spaces were downtown and on a bus line, though, which Melnick considers critical to making the meal accessible and serving the most people. There’s always Christmas Day, or next year, he said.

While Chronis’ covered dinner, the Fraternal Order of the Eagles had served Thanksgiving breakfast for more than a decade. This year, the group is unable to because the kitchen is undergoing necessary upgrades.

“Currently, we don’t have a single appliance, a table, a shelf,” said trustee Scott Hauffman.

The all-volunteer group is slowly updating its space at 107 E. Seventh St., which turned out to be a bigger project than anticipated.

“It started in August, and it’s still not done,” Hauffman said. He said the group plans to pick up the breakfast tradition Thanksgiving next year.

Available meals

Ohana Farms Northwest has enough food to serve 300 people Thanksgiving dinner this year, but Carolyn Carpio said she is worried people won’t be able to get to where they’re hosting the meal — St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church on Northeast 119th Street. It’s not anywhere near a bus stop, said Carpio, who organizes the event with her family.

In the past six years, though, hundreds of people have gotten to their Thanksgiving feast one way or another. Once, a volunteer sent a bus to pick up a man so he could attend the dinner, Carpio said.

Besides a hot meal, the family gives out clothing, hygiene products and nonperishable food.

“I believe that we can help and make a difference,” Carpio said.

A new contender this year is Daddy D’s Southern Style BBQ. The restaurant will host a free Thanksgiving meal Saturday, not Thanksgiving Day, at its Vancouver restaurant.

“We’ll do our best to feed every single person that comes through the door,” said owner Donnie Vercher. “When I moved to the Northwest, somebody helped my family, and I never forgot it.”

He began smoking about 40 turkeys Tuesday in preparation for the big meal. He predicts they will feed at least 250 people.