 Turkey, mashed potatoes and other delicious foods were on the menu for the brainer community meal and thanks to a special group of people it wasn't just for those who made it to the American Legion that got to celebrate with the community Clayton Castle has that story It was a packed house today at the American Legion and brainered for today's community meal bringing together people young and old but before the 1130 dinner special deliveries were made to those who couldn't make it out to the Legion on this Thanksgiving day we have the police department the sheriff's department the fire department and we get each of their trucks and cars together they get to bring their families along with so that's a great experience for the kids and then they go out into the community so people can not only see that they're there in the good in the bad times but they're there in the good times too for some first responder families volunteering their time on Thanksgiving is an annual tradition it's uh it's really it's amazing to be able to have my family do this and instill those traditions into the next generation delivering meals as a way for the first responders to give back and meet the community that they serve on a daily basis well that's part of the reason I got into doing firefighting was to give something back to the local community and this is just another great opportunity for me to do that back at the Legion the community meal was packed as early as a half hour before the meal was served marking one of the biggest crowds in the event's history I do believe it's going to be the biggest here because already we have 50 more to go orders than we did last year and again it's not even 11 30 and we're packed already so I'm hoping that we have enough food to go around and for those who made it out to the Legion they were served with some good eating this year's the most the most turkeys I've ever ordered so we cooked 40 turkeys this year 15 cases of mashed potatoes it just seems like a large large amount so it's been pretty awesome the american legion eagles elks and vfw all located in brainard put on the community meal reporting in brainer clayton castle lakeland news any monetary donations collected at the community meal were donated to the salvation army food shelf if you've enjoyed this segment of lakeland news please consider making a tax deductible contribution to lakeland public television