Volunteers help serve the community Thanksgiving meal, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025. (Will Steinfeld/Chilkat Valley News)
Arnold and Jennifer DuVernay used to spend Thanksgiving either at home, or in a Cracker Barrel. That one was a newer revelation, where “for 12 bucks you’re getting a full Thanksgiving meal with coffee and dessert and then you don’t have to clean anything up,” Arnold said. But always, Cracker Barrel or otherwise, it was with family. At least until they picked up and moved to Haines earlier this year. The couple fell in love with the town after two days, but still, it’s far from Naples, Florida, their home of over two decades. And, it’s 51-year-old Arnold’s first time in living in snow.
It’s similar for Dave Nussbaumer and Molly Sturdevant, who moved here from Juneau around 10 years ago.
“Even after you’ve been here for a while, it’s not always easy to find a group to potluck with,” Sturdevant said.
Same, too, with Ray Dennis, whose family Thanksgiving in Anchorage stopped coming together years ago. Same with Patty Morgan, whose boiler had also just gotten fixed, so she didn’t have hot water in her house. “I thought, well I don’t want to be cooking — I do have a turkey in the oven, but still, my granddaughter wanted to spend the day with her friends,” Morgan said.
The six of them were all within shouting distance at the Haines community Thanksgiving, a packed affair put on in the high-school cafeteria by volunteers with the Salvation Army and the Haines Ministerial Association. Dennis sat one table up from the DuVernays, who happened to be at the same table and got to chatting with Nussbaumer and Sturdevant, whom they had never met. Across the aisle Morgan sat with an old friend she had met decades ago in Seattle.
“People come for the camaraderie, and because they enjoy serving people,” Salvation Army captain Kevin Woods said, as he helped out at the end of the serving station. “Some people that come here, they don’t even eat the meal, they may be going home and eating with their family, or they may not have any family here in town, but they want to sit down and have a cup of coffee and a piece of pie.”
Woods and other volunteers said this year was a high-water mark for the community meal, which began in its current form a decade ago.
In total, the event served 141 plates of food in person and packed 75 to-go boxes, all food cooked by community volunteers in the lead up to the holiday. Volunteer Krystal Lloyd and daughter Allie Lloyd made the rounds afterward, handing out boxes to residents both at home and around downtown.
It’s become a yearly tradition for the Lloyds, who say they’ve gotten a sense for who might appreciate a meal, or an extra slice of pie, even if they didn’t ask for one.
The meal could also become a yearly tradition for even first timers like the DuVernays, Nussbaumer, and Sturdevant, who said they hoped to be back, for both the company and the food.
Said Arnold DuVernay: “I like the turkey, I like the ham, I got gravy on everything. Yams, green bean casserole, everything they had I was like, ‘yes, yes, and yes.’”
Dining and Cooking