DOBBINS HEIGHTS — The collards are cooked and ready to be warmed up on Thursday for the annual Watkins Kendall Thanksgiving dinner.
For 10 years, the children of Wilbur and Evelyn Watkins Kendall have been sharing their family feast with the rest of the community.
Wilma Huey, the oldest of the six children, was only 6 years old when their father passed away. Their mother followed when she was 14.
“After they passed, our aunt (Betty Watkins) took care of us till we got grown,” she said.
Watkins also had two children of her own.
“There was always a need for other things, but never really a need for food,” Huey said, explaining that they raised everything they needed on the farm. “We feel like it was a blessing for us then, we want to be a blessing to others who can’t afford it now.”
Robert Robinson, one of Huey’s cousins who helps out each year, told the Daily Journal last year that the event was started because there would be so much food left over after Thanksgiving dinner, they didn’t know what to do with it.
Huey said her younger sister Sandra brought up that sometimes people don’t have family with them and there are others who are homeless who don’t have anything to eat, so they opened up their meal to others.
“You can come and sit down and eat if you want to,” she said, “or you can call and we’ll bring it to you.”
The community is always fed prior to the family, and plate deliveries aren’t just for those in Dobbins Heights. Huey said they will be taking plates to people throughout Richmond County, including Ellerbe, beginning at noon.
She said there’s one elderly couple in Rockingham they have been providing a meal for every year since the event began.
Dobbins Heights Mayor Antonio Blue has been helping with the deliveries the past several years.
“We really don’t know what kind of impact we have on people until you see the faces of the people we deliver to,” he said at the last town council meeting. “Just the small things — they go a long way.”
This year, the family will be using the new community center, located next to the park on Earle Franklin Drive.
On the menu for this year are: ham, turkey and dressing, rice and gravy, macaroni and cheese, collards, corn, green beans, yams. rolls and desserts — including Daniel Kendall’s sweet potato pies.
“I’m excited about it,” said Huey’s younger sister Angeline David, adding the dinner, which begins at 2 p.m., also includes door prizes.
Huey said some people just come out to fellowship.
“They don’t even eat,” she said. “It’s just friends, fellowship, a lot of laughter and fun.”
For a ride to the community center or delivery, call Huey at 582-2557 or 995-2708 or David at 582-1866 or 206-3542.
Reach reporter William R. Toler at 910-817-2675 and follow him on Twitter @William_r_Toler.