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Joe’s Pizza to host free Thanksgiving dinner
By Senitra Horbrook, shorbrook@acnpapers.com
Joe’s Pizza Pasta & Subs will once again put away the pizzas tomorrow and bring out 80 turkeys to feed 1,000 people.
For the second year in a row, the Carrollton pizzeria is hosting a free turkey dinner for the community. Last year, Joe’s hosted the first Thanksgiving soup kitchen in the suburbs in more than 20 years.
“It’s really an outreach for people to have somewhere to go,” said Carolyn Benavides, who owns the pizzeria with her son, LJ.
“We served down to the last morsel and it was over,” she said.
Benavides said the diners were mostly local residents and families, some with no family in the area and others who had fallen on hard times.
“It was normal middle class America – good people living in difficult times,” she said.
Benavides remembers one woman with five kids who came knocking at the window at 5 p.m., after the scheduled serving time was done.
“She said ‘We were at home sitting in the dark with nothing to eat and my son pulled this flier out of his backpack. Do you have anything left?’”
Benavides said she was just sitting down to dinner with her family, but gave the woman what she could.
“There’s a great need in our city and I wish people would be more compassionate,” she said.
This year, Joe’s began campaigning in October, accepting donations of canned goods and pies. Groups from Rainwater Elementary School, R.L. Turner High School, Covenant Church and the Lewisville Jaycees provided many donations. Kroger also agreed to donate soft drinks. Benavides said donations have amounted to about $1,500. 1110 AM is co-sponsoring the event and will broadcast live from the pizzeria.
“The community has compassion for our need in our area,” Benavides said.
One change on this year’s menu is the addition of vegetables. Benavides said they are still accepting donations of canned corn and green beans.
“We didn’t include vegetables last year because they’re so expensive,” she said.
The restaurant will serve Thanksgiving dinner for dine-in or take-out from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“Eighty-two can be seated at a time. Last year it was 70 percent take-out,” Benavides said. “We had to encourage people to come in. That’s OK too – go home and eat it with your children.”
Diners will be able to enjoy a turkey dinner with dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, green beans, pumpkin pie and homemade rolls.
“It’s just beautiful,” Benavides said. “Ninety percent of all of our customers are returning customers and they are the ones helping fund this.”
If you go: Joe’s Pizza Pasta & Subs
1904 E. Belt Line Road, Carrollton
972-416-6555
Joespizzasubs.com
Free Thanksgiving dinner 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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