Q&A with Janet Easley, Turner Family Thanksgiving Meal co-coordinator

Janet Easley hasn’t had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with her family in 37 years. Instead, the 62-year-old retiree and some 200 volunteers spend the day serving nearly 10,000 others.

It’s a tradition that started when she, her late Aunt Thelma Turner and friends at her church started hosting a dinner that kept growing and is now known as the Turner Family Thanksgiving Meal.

The free meal is available at three locations: Watkins Family Center, 2360 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St.; Sunrise Missionary Baptist Church, 1831 Bellefontaine St.; and Harper’s Bar & Grill, 4202 W. 56th St.

This year has been especially challenging for Easley, who put off knee surgery so she could make the pies and collect the turkeys needed to make the meal a success.

“It makes me feel good,” she said of the endeavor. “I don’t feel good inside if I’m not doing it.”

How many people are you expecting to serve this year?

We did 9,800 last year. I hope it will be over 10,000 this year. I’m hoping and praying the donations come in for that. But right now, the donations are coming in real slow.

How much food do you need to have donated?

We are asking for 300 turkeys. I got 160 right now (as of Nov. 18). We need green beans and corn—the No. 10 cans (which hold 6 pounds, 6 ounces) and cranberries.

Do most of the people come to a dinner or do you deliver food to them?

We deliver; they come in. We have a church facility, which is Sunrise, that feeds them. And then we have another facility, which is Harper’s Bar & Grill. They feed. And Watkins. We go out to deliver, too. We just do it all.

Can you tell me how this got started?

It was God and my church and my aunt’s store 37 years ago. We just started at the church first, and then my Aunt Thelma started having it at her (variety) store. We all just came together. We got so big, the Walker Family Center opened up their facilities for us.

How do you cook 300 turkeys?

Last year, we had over 350 turkeys. The (Indiana) Woman’s Prison cooked them all for us.

The turkeys came from everywhere. The community came out last year. Big time. We have a drop-off point at Walker Family Center, and then people called me or my co-coordinator, Bobbi Jones, and they let us know they had something and we had people go pick them up.

I was so happy. I had tears just rolling down my eyes.

What is the last day people can make a food donation?

I have to have all the turkeys out to the woman’s prison by at least Monday (Nov. 25) to get them all un-thawed. The green beans and corn, we take up until Tuesday. Bring your beans and corn to the Walker Center or we’ll come pick them up.

What is it like to have to do so much cooking?

I make over 600 pies. I start at the end of October and I’m almost through now.

People have been fussing at me, though, because I’ve had health problems. I have to do a total knee replacement and I’m on a walker. And they keep saying: “Janet, slow down!”

And I say: “Listen, I’m not slowing down. I’m determined to feed these people.”

My surgery was supposed to be at the end of last month but I canceled. I told them I wanted to have it January because I wanted to get through Thanksgiving.•