DINNER IS SERVED
Missy’s Family Restaurant welcomes all for free Thanksgiving Day dinner
WOONSOCKET – Judy Beauchemin’s crew of volunteers have been peeling the vegetables and things are shaping up for another big Thanksgiving Day community dinner at her Missy’s Family Restaurant at 801 Clinton Street.
This will be the 15th year Beauchemin and her family and friends put on the free Thanksgiving Day dinner and just like last year, the COVID-19 pandemic won’t stop her from lifting the spirits of area homeless, the elderly, veterans, or those just alone for the holiday.
“Nobody should go hungry, nobody,” Beauchemin said while explaining that she hosts the dinner due to a kind spot in her heart and the belief that “caring is sharing and sharing is caring.”
As she worked after hours at the restaurant with her husband, Roland, her son, Roland Jr. – Missy’s cook, and the volunteers, Beauchemin was also fielding calls from local residents asking if the dinner was on.
A 65-year-old woman calling Monday afternoon asked if she could pick up a meal on Thursday and Beauchemin
said she could do that or come in and eat dinner with everyone else.
“She said she would come down to eat,” Beauchemin said. Getting together with other people can be as much of a boost as the hot plates of turkey and all the fixing that will be served up from 12 to 5 p.m., according to Beauchemin.
Putting on a free meal for the public
is not an easy thing to do, especially in the current climate of higher food and supply costs, but Beauchemin believes there are things that just need to be done.
“Generosity is all over the place and you just have to have it inside you,” she explained.
There have been plenty of challenges in running a small business over the past two years, but Beauchemin said she sees herself as fortunate to be among those making it through.
That has meant trying to hold back some of the increased costs from her menu so that customers can still see the value of coming into the restaurant.
“I’m not greedy and God always gives back to those who believe in him enough,” Beauchemin said while noting the role of her religious faith in giving back.
“I believe in God and I’m a very strong Christian,” Beauchemin explained.
“I give back because it’s my faith, and you have to have faith,” Beauchemin said.
Beauchemin has been getting help from her regular volunteers in preparing for the meal and also a few donations to help with the food expenses such as the six turkeys Roger Jalette Jr. arranged for her receive from a local rod and gun club.
She has also received donations from people coming in and Duva Bread in Worcester, Mass., her bread supplier, is sending along dinner rolls for the event.
The supply chain issues have affected her dinner ordering but she just received the large order of vegetables, the potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, squash and green beans needed for the meal.
That had volunteers such as Robert Bosco of North Smithfield, Sue Angell and Paulette Sweeney of Woonsocket, Tom Bouchard of Woonsocket and Kelsie Desfosses all working a peeling detail at tables in the restaurant’s dining room Monday.
“I’m helping out as much as a I can,” Desfosses said of joining the group after also helping out with past dinners.
“We love Judy, she is an excellent person, and there are plenty of people in need,” Bosco, a longtime friend of the restaurant owner, said.
Also cutting up vegetables on Monday was Jean Michon, director and executive chef of the New Beginnings meal site at All Saints Parish at 323 Rathbun St., who was helping Beauchemin just as Beauchemin returns the favor for her own organization’s community Christmas dinner.
“If we need to cook extra turkeys for Christmas, I bring them here and they cook them,” Michon said.
There is always a need for the community dinners as evidenced by the 77,000 meals New Beginnings has served up to the homeless, the elderly and the working poor since in started in Nov. of 2017, Michon pointed out.
“My numbers are way up,” she added while noting the impact of the pandemic on many people in the area coping with higher food and housing costs.
New Beginnings is facing its own difficulties in looking for a new home after learning All Saints Parish is merging with St. Joseph Parish on Mendon Road. The food program has until May to find a suitable new location and Michon is working on that now.
If a new larger location can be secured, Michon hopes to bring along the food pantry program that also operates out of All Saints currently.
“I have a building I like but we have to figure out how we can get it into our hands,” Michon noted.
Beauchemin expects to see plenty of people stopping in at her restaurant on Thursday when she starts serving the dinner at noon and plans to continue serving to 5 p.m. so long as the food doesn’t run out.
Roland Jr. plans to be busy cooking through the rest of the week while also serving the restaurant’s daily customers and noted the end result of that extra work is the pay off.
“After all my 20 hours days I get to see everyone going home with a full belly and maybe even a warm hat or coat,” Roland Beauchemin said.
Missy’s has been getting clothing donations as part of its meal collections and those will be going out with the hot meals people come in for on Thanksgiving, the family members noted.
In addition to running Missy’s at 801 Clinton St., Judy Beauchemin, who has owned several local restaurants since 1993, is also in the process of renovating Champs Diner on Front Street, which she just acquired.
Champs will be reopening soon, hopefully by January, Beauchemin noted.
“After the renovations are done and it reopens, we will have the meal at both places next year,” Beauchemin noted.
Whatever is left over from the meal at Missy’s on Thanksgiving this year will go out as boxed meals to those in need at several different assistance programs in the city, Judy Beauchemin explained.
Her daughter, Tabitha Westerhuis and her family, will also be helping out with the serving, and of course all her volunteers.
“There are so many people who are willing to help,” the restaurant owner noted.
“People aren’t afraid to come in and get involved helping one another and I find that is Woonsocket, that’s what this community is all about,” Beauchemin said.