They Came for Turkey. Maybe?
They left with something else. YWCA of MDI fed a community last night.
BAR HARBOR—No one is quite sure how many years the YWCA of MDI has been cooking a community Thanksgiving dinner.
“It’s been years,” Jackie Davidson, executive director said Monday night as the smells of turkey and gravy wafted through the entire building. “This dinner has been going on for many years, and it was very established by the time I got here.”
The dinner has been going on at least as long as Abby Robinson has been at the YWCA, and that, she said, has been 22 years. She believes it began under the direction of Benni McMullen, who had been the director of the YMCA for 39 years, making hundreds of friends and saving countless people through her work, her kindness, and her focus on ways to build and care for community. One of those ways was a Thanksgiving dinner.
And, for every year that she’s worked at the YWCA, Robinson has been cooking turkey and mashed potato and sweet potato and other sides. Cooking for more than 30 people might intimidate some, but for Robinson, it’s part of the holidays. Growing up, her family gatherings would sometimes host 60. They’d all eat in the same space. Sometimes that space was a garage for the larger gatherings, but what mattered was that they all ate together.
That’s what mattered in the YWCA auditorium on Monday night, too, as approximately 34 people gathered along long tables in the room’s center. Some years there have been as many as fifty attendees.
“I would say the importance it has on the community is that people know the YWCA and we have always had a reputation for serving good food!” Davidson said. “A lot of the attendees are folks from Malvern Belmont and some come from Rodick Lorraine as well.”
It’s about socializing, she thinks, about coming together in one place, under one roof, sharing stories, and breaking bread.
When people share food, they share trust. It becomes an act of caring and it can increase both cooperation and goodwill. A Pew Research Center study from 2019 explained that approximately 80% of respondents didn’t think Americans trusted their neighbors. Approximately 60% thought restoring that trust was important.
A shared meal helps to build that trust.
And a shared meal, year after year, at a place like the YWCA is also a moment where things slow down.
In 2017, researchers at the University of Oxford explored how social eating and happiness might be correlated as well as how that connects to a person’s number of friends, satisfaction with life, and community connection.
“The results suggest that communal eating increases social bonding and feelings of well-being, and enhances one’s sense of contentedness and embedding within the community,” the University of Oxford site wrote in a release.
In the moments Monday night at the YWCA, you could see that connection, that moment of contentedness, happening as Robinson watched people serve themselves at the buffet before taking their seats. It happened as people applauded April Cough McGuire who serenely serenaded those gathered with her voice and keyboard. It happened as Davidson said, “I thought it would be nice if we all read this blessing together.”
“Of course,” a rough voice shouted from the table. “Of course!”
The blessing didn’t extol any religion; it spoke of community and gratitude, of hunger and full bellies. It spoke of care.
“Thank you all so much for doing this,” one woman said.
“Thank you. Thank you for being here,” Davidson responded.
And right then? Another connection was made.
“Up until a few years ago we always held this event on Tuesday before Thanksgiving,” Davidson said. “Traditionally, we have had a Thanksgiving Pie sale that same day, so if a pie didn't sell at the sale, we knew it would be welcome at the dinner afterwards. When Open Table began their dinners, they held them on Tuesdays, so we felt it wasn't fair to compete with them, so we moved to Monday.”
That choice? Just another kindness. Just another way to build community.
PIE SALE TODAY!
The YWCA of Mount Desert Island will be selling some Thanksgiving pies all day today, Tuesday, November 26. The sale starts at 10 a.m. and goes until the pies are gone. The YWCA is located on Mount Desert Street in Bar Harbor.
All photos: Shaun Farrar/Bar Harbor Story
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