By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
YACHATS – The monthly lunch may have had all the ingredients of a Christmas dinner – ham, sweet potatoes, corn casserole, salad, rolls and cookies – but socializing was the highlight of the menu Thursday.
The Yachats Lions Club wrapped up a year of its revitalized monthly “Lunch Bunch” gatherings with a Christmas-themed meal and 42 people – along with four cooks and four helpers – spent from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. chatting, catching up, and enjoying the food and each other.
Virginia Frenger, 94, of Waldport and Ulla DeWict, 95, of Tidewater have been attending for decades and now rely on their daughters to drive them to the Lions Club hall the third Thursday of each month.
DeWict’s daughter, Debbie Mann comes down from Vancouver, Wash. one to two weeks a month to help care for her mother. But one of those weeks has to include the lunch.
Frenger’s daughter, Kathy Link, recently moved from Texas to Waldport to care for her mother. And now that Frenger no longer drives, the Lions lunch is their third Thursday destination.
“They come here to see all their friends,” Link said of her mother and DeWict.
And that’s the purpose, says Lions Club president David Okelley. The chance for the mostly elderly crowd to get out and socialize and have a good $5 meal.
The monthly luncheon started in 2000 by Angell Job Corps students and local volunteers and staged in the Yachats Commons multipurpose room. The volunteers stepped in when the Corps dropped its culinary program in 2010. The Lions Club took it over in 2018, but had to stop during the pandemic years of 2021-22 before resuming it one year ago.
Sandy White used to volunteer with the lunches at the Commons and helped keep it going after the Job Corps stopped.
“We all got together and asked ‘If we had all-volunteer chefs can we keep it going?’” White said. “And the answer was ‘Yes’.”
While she’s not a Lions Club member, White is still a big part of the operation – leading lunch planning and preparation four times this year – on Thursday, for Thanksgiving, and in July and March.
“It’s so important for the socialization and the fun,” White said while overseeing kitchen duties Thursday. “And when you see people eating your food, it’s rewarding.”
Okelley told the crowd Thursday that over the past year the lunches have averaged 48 guests a month, with a record 70 for November’s Thanksgiving meal. After paying for food and other supplies, the club netted $738, he said, which it used to purchase new tablecloths. Donations through a lunchtime 50/50 raffle raised $718 for the organization’s Dimes for Diabetes program, which helps support an Oregon camp for diabetic children.
Candi Claussen of Waldport is one of the club’s youngest members, uses the Lions Hall for 4-H archery classes one night a week and gymnastics on another and was a guest chef twice before joining. She always involves her daughter, Cara, 10, who helps set tables and take down afterwards, and hopes to start a Lions program for middle schoolers next year.
“The lunches are awesome,” said Claussen, who with her husband, Steve, operate the Big Dog BBQ food truck in downtown. “It’s always a good turnout and always a lot of fun.”
And that was the lunch’s main course Thursday.
