“Everybody Eats” Thanksgiving dinner feeds hundreds

Thursday, hundreds attended the “Everybody Eats” Thanksgiving meal put on by Almeta Crayton’s Community Programs.

This is the 17th year the community dinner has been in Columbia.

Organizers estimated 200-300 people attended the event. And they say they had about 200 volunteers for the Thanksgiving meal and basket program.

Kentrell Minton, the chair of Almeta Crayton Community Programs says they’ve seen an outpouring of help this year from the community.

Kentrell Minton, Almeta Crayton Community Programs Chair: “We have had a lot of donations. And believe it or not, even though this is Thanksgiving, we still have donations coming in through the door. So we’re going to have a lot that we can take to the local shelters that people are definitely in need that we can take this food to afterward.”

“Everybody Eats” was founded by Almeta Crayton, who represented Columbia’s first ward on the city council for nearly a decade.

Attendees of the dinner remembered Crayton Thursday by writing down ways she had personally impacted their lives and put together a collage.

Minton: “Almeta was a wonderful woman of the community, a mother to many. So just like any other situation we have came together, not just as a community, but as a family and made it all happen.”

The meal was from 11:00 to 2:00 in the afternoon at Stephens College in the Stamper Commons.

Minton says earlier this week, volunteers assembled about 560 baskets to deliver to families in need in the Columbia area. That’s about 50 percent more than they have put together in years past.

Minton says they began preparing for “Everybody Eats” in September since it has grown a great deal over the years.