Barb O’Neill’s Thanksgiving meal to mark 50 years. ‘It’s like a family reunion.’
The legend goes, Barb O’Neill started the tradition of organizing a free Thanksgiving dinner for people in need after hearing about a mother and daughter who would split a pancake as their holiday meal.
“I couldn’t have that,” O’Neill told The Olympian in 2006.
So she invited them to her home in Lacey. The next year, another family came. Every year, it grew.
Wednesday’s meal marks the 50th anniversary of Barb O’Neill’s Family and Friends’ free Thanksgiving dinner, where volunteers now serve up hundreds of plates of turkey the day before Thanksgiving.
The meal will run noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday at First United Methodist Church of Olympia, at 1224 Legion Way SE.
“There’s so much generosity in this community. The bulk of the work I try to do, because that’s how my mom did it,” said Rodney O’Neill, who took over coordinating duties when his mother died in 2008. “She was happy when she was doing everything. The more she worked, the happier she was.”
When the crowd got too big, O’Neill moved the dinners from her home to her soul food restaurant in downtown Olympia, then to local churches.
Over the years, she founded the nonprofit Barb O’Neill’s Family and Friends, started offering another free meal the Saturday before Christmas, collected clothes and furniture for people in need, handed out toys for children at the holiday, and Easter baskets in the spring.
Rodney O’Neill says planning for the Thanksgiving event starts in January, with dozens of donors and volunteers needed to put it on.
“It’s just great to see people who need help getting help,” said Chris Jelleson, who has volunteered at the dinner about 15 years. “Sometimes people have a hard time asking for help. They just need a safe environment.”
Rodney O’Neill remembers those early years at his mother’s house. He didn’t expect the tradition to last 50 years. Now, he can’t imagine not doing it.
“It keeps me closer to my mom, and that’s why I continue to do it. It’s like a family reunion,” he said.
