RACINE, Wis. — Every Thanksgiving, two friends organize an event that feeds thousands of people in Racine.

But it might be coming to an end.

What You Need To Know

  • Ray Stibeck and Dan Johnson said they started Dan and Ray’s Rendering Thanksgiving Community 15 years ago because they wanted to serve their community

  • Every year, they feed thousands of people in Racine

  • It’s become about more than just providing a simple meal; it's now a big family Thanksgiving

  • Stibeck and Johnson said this is the last Community Thanksgiving they plan to organize

Ray Stibeck and Dan Johnson said they started Dan and Ray’s Rendering Thanksgiving Community 15 years ago because they wanted to serve their community.

“We started this 15 years ago,” said Stibeck. “We only did it because Racine County had the highest unemployment rate in the state.”

Stibeck said they fed around 1,100 people in their first year.

However, he said this event is just as necessary now as it was when they first started. He said that’s because they regularly average two to three times that number of people every Thanksgiving.

“We love doing it,” said Stibeck. “We are happy to help the community, but it just tells you how bad of a situation we are in.”

Johnson said when they originally wanted to do this, they had no idea how it was going to come together.

Thanks to hundreds of volunteers, that answer became quite simple.

“The community can step up a high-class meal at no relative cost and we have so many volunteers,” said Johnson. “It’s relatively easy to do this.”

One of those volunteers is Mary Vite. She has been volunteering at the event for seven years.

“That fact that everyone comes together and there is all walks of life and everybody’s joyous and happy and they are thrilled to get a free dinner, all they can eat. Some of them even take home a container for later,” she said.

(Spectrum News 1/Phillip Boudreaux)

Johnson said the Community Thanksgiving has a simple message.

“Today, everybody is just equally nice to each other. We are trying to convey what the world should be like,” said Johnson.

For Stibeck, it’s become more than just providing a simple meal.

“This really has become our own Thanksgiving and everyone that comes to this community is pretty much our family now, so we built that in 15 years,” said Stibeck. “It’s pretty special.”

Stibeck and Johnson said this is the last Community Thanksgiving they plan to organize, but they hope to find a successor to keep this tradition going as long as it needs to.

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