ST. GEORGE, Utah — How many turkeys are being served at your Thanksgiving? How about 150 turkeys for 3,000 people? That's what was happening at a community dinner in St. George that's been happening for 51 years.
For the last week and a half, 74-year-old Melanie Habibian has practically lived at the site of the closed Red Rock Canyon School on St. George Boulevard, even pitching up a cot.
“Well, I do go home but its long hours,” said Thanksgiving Dinner Organizer Melanie Habibian.
Habibian has been putting up the decorations in the closed-up school.
More than 3,000 Thanksgiving meals with all the fixings will be provided for free to anyone.
“The phones never quit ringing and some days you just feel like, I wish this would all go away,” said Habibian. “But the day that the people start lining up outside and the food is prepared and we are ready to start serving. That all goes away.”
Frank Habibian emigrated to the U.S. from Iran in the 1960s before attending Southern Utah University where he met his wife.
Eventually, they bought an old hotel on St. George Boulevard when they noticed people didn’t have a place to go for Thanksgiving.
“So we started cooking Thanksgiving dinner and we would hold a big Thanksgiving dinner out in the lobby,” Melanie Habibian said.
For the rest of Frank and Melanie’s kids and grandkids, it's become their Thanksgiving tradition.
“It's funny, I have a little girl myself and my niece, they come down and that's what we do for Thanksgiving,” Sherman Habibian said. “It's now our tradition and it's our community tradition too.”
And it’s not that the food is second-hand. The top ingredients are donated, including Smith’s and Albertsons Market ingredients and pumpkin pies from Costco.
The Habibians said they’re spending about $15,000 on this year’s meal.
It’s all been handled for the last 30 years by a top chef trained in Rome and Zurich.
“I just love serving. I just love serving others,” said Chef Ron Nia, who used to run Luigi’s Restaurant on St. George Boulevard. ”I'm a selfish guy. It gives me a great pleasure.
Those served aren’t just the destitute, but those who just need company on Thanksgiving. And to Melanie, it doesn't matter if people take seconds.
“A lot of them will go down the line and they'll have a plate in one hand and a take-out box in the other hand. And they take a lunch home with them for the next day and they love that,” Habibian said. “And we don't care. That's what it's for.”
The Community Thanksgiving takes place Thursday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 747 E. St. George Blvd.
