MILWAUKEE— A staple on Milwaukee’s West Side is giving back this Thanksgiving Day to its community. McBob’s restaurant has been on North Avenue for 35 years.  For the past five, the owners have donated free Thanksgiving meals to veterans. Many of them are homeless.

“We’ve had a couple experiences with our homeless veterans and so as we were talking, we said, 'What can we do for our homeless veterans to help them out?',” said co-owner Steve Schmich. “So, we said the bar is closed for Thanksgiving so, let’s open it up and specifically target our homeless veterans.”

The crowd has grown from just over 50 vets in 2015 to now over 300 this year. Because the pandemic has put so many people in dire straights financially, Steve and his wife, Christine, opened up the free meal opportunity to first responders as well. After 1 p.m., the entire community could take advantage of the offer too.

“COVID has struck everybody,” Steve said. “They closed us down right before St. Paddy’s Day so, from then to now it’s been a struggle.”

This year due to health concerns, McBob’s offered a curbside to-go option for those needing a free meal. Steve says any leftover food or monetary donations will go to the Milwaukee Rescue Mission.