Elgin community dinner feeds hundreds
About 100 volunteers and more than 500 guests filled up on free food and good company Sunday during the 3rd annual Have a Heart Dinner, one of four community dinners held in Elgin throughout the year.
Jeff Turner, owner of In the Neighborhood Deli and organizer of the feasts, said turnout was lower than expected for the Valentine’s Day-themed event at Elgin’s Hemmens Cultural Center, so the leftovers will be donated to social service organizations in the community.
“If we don’t feed them today, we’ll feed them tomorrow,” Turner said.
Chesuaf Castillo, of Elgin, enjoyed the food Sunday with family and friends. Castillo said they went to the Thanksgiving meal as well and liked the atmosphere of the community event.
“If we didn’t like it we wouldn’t keep coming,” Castillo said.
Volunteers helped serve the meal, which included pasta, salad, potatoes and stuffing, as well as drinks and desserts. Others helped set up and take down chairs and tablecloths or decorate place mats.
Larkin High School senior Diana Alcala, 17, volunteered with some of her friends. They helped during the midafternoon shift and enjoyed meeting new people and the opportunity to serve.
“I think it’s fun to be able to help others,” Alcala said.
Rich Hirschberg, of Elgin, helped himself to the lunch before a 2 p.m. performance of “Annie Jr.” on The Hemmens’ main stage. He said the timing was perfect to support the concept of the community dinner and still see his daughter Lyndsey perform in the show.
“I’m thankful that Elgin does something like this,” Hirschberg said. “It speaks volumes about what we’re all about.”
Some members of the Christian Youth Theater group in “Annie Jr.” stopped downstairs to perform during the meal, and music by a DJ filled out the rest of the event, which lasted from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Turner said the fundraising drive for the Have a Heart dinner was so successful, excess funds will be carried over to pay for next year’s Thanksgiving meal.
The next dinner will be a community cookout in June during the NeighborWorks event in Elgin’s South West Area Neighborhood.