Thanks on the menu for Labor Day

Firefighters throughout the area were on duty Monday but the designated chefs could relax.

That's because the cooking was done for them, courtesy of the Olive Garden restaurants.

"We are thanking those who serve us every day by serving them," said Mara Frazier, media relations manager for the national chain.

For the seventh year, all 647 restaurants throughout the country were honoring police and firefighters on Labor Day by providing lunch or dinner.

How that would be done and who would get the special deliveries was left up to local managers. Olive Garden has 25 restaurants in Illinois, about half of them in the Chicago suburbs.

Ed Warchal, service manager for the Vernon Hills location, delivered dinners of lasagna, spaghetti with marinara sauce, salad with breadstick and tiramisu for dessert to about 50 firefighters at stations in Vernon Hills, Mundelein, Libertyville and Wauconda.

"We do it to honor the people that work on these days that give so much back to the community," he said.

"It's nice to be appreciated," said Joe Schramm, a firemedic from the Countryside Fire Protection District in Vernon Hills.