Published on Nov. 21, 2018	In the Columbia Missourian
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The kitchen of the Columbia Senior Activity Center is packed on Wednesday afternoon. Volunteers are preparing food for the yearly Everybody Eats dinner on Thanksgiving Day.

The kitchen’s well-equipped for the occasion. Everything is metal: the ovens, racks of ladles, the pots and pans. Even the tables are a shiny silver. Volunteers bustle across the tan tile floor.

Two long tables in the center of the room are stacked with food, with several trays of freshly peeled and chopped sweet potatoes, and trays of boiled macaroni waiting to be mixed with cheese. Also present: Huge cans of corn weighing six pounds each. Sixteen pounds of Velveeta. Thirty-seven boxes of corn muffin mix.

Kentrell Minton, 36, has been involved with Everybody Eats for over 13 years and is now the CEO of Almeta Crayton’s Community Programs, a local nonprofit that organizes the dinner. This is the group’s fifth year organizing the meal.

They have 1,000 pounds of turkey, he says, as well as 700 pounds of ham, 200 pounds of sweet potatoes, and 70 pounds of corn and green beans each.

Minton said he expects to serve 1,500 people across all of the dinner’s locations. And that’s only half the work for Everybody Eats: the other half is the basket drive, where they prep meals “to go.” He expects over 575 prepared baskets to be picked up by the end of the holiday.

The dinner will be the 21st annual feast. It’s the first year the group is working at more than two locations. They’ll be delivering meals to True North, Harbor House, Freedom House Apartments, University Hospital, Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and the Columbia Police Department.

Additionally, they will be “fellowshipping” at Welcome Home veterans, Oak Towers, and Paquin Tower, Minton said. That means not just delivering meals, but staying to eat, play games and worship with people.

Anthony Crayton, 60, Almeta’s brother, has been volunteering since the former councilwoman and community activist’s death in 2013.

“(I’m helping) to keep the legacy going and keep her dream alive,” he said.

Usually, as a family member, he works as a greeter and takes donations. This is his first year in the kitchen. On Wednesday afternoon, he was preparing the macaroni and cheese, but for the rest of the day he would be doing whatever is needed.

Nick Raines, 30, is vice president of the organization. He met Almeta Crayton when he was in sixth grade and volunteered with her on various projects around the city. He started with Everybody Eats in 2012.

“We pretty much have it down to a science,” he said. As a board member he collects donations, signs people up for baskets, makes sure baskets are prepped and helps with other organizational tasks.

The heat generated from the cooking escaped out the back door of the kitchen. Occasionally Minton did, too, to coordinate with other volunteers by phone.

Rebecca Shaw, 37, is working with Everybody Eats for the first time. She’s an organizer with CoMo For Progress, a local advocacy group, but right now she’s focused on chopping pound after pound of sweet potatoes.

“I really enjoy the fact that they bring the community together,” she said.

Three children and their parents gathered around trash cans, peeling one sweet potato after another. The father, Daniel Hall, 52, was returning after first volunteering for the dinner last year.

“(We’re) just trying to cultivate a sense of community responsibility in our children,” he said. Hands-on volunteering is more fulfilling than just donating, he finds, because you get to see the recipients of the food and interact with them.

“It’s fun. Thanksgiving is a great holiday. It’s family, fun and food.”

A man in a leather vest broke up cheese to mix into the macaroni. A large patch on his back read “Ryzing Sonz MC.” Alonzo Wright, 37, has never helped with Everybody Eats before but he and his motorcycle club frequently help the homeless.

Members of the Ryzing Sonz are helping with two tasks: One group is helping carve and prepare the turkey, and the other is helping deliver meals where they are needed.

“Anything we can do to put a smile on someone’s face,” Wright said.

Crayton, Columbia’s first black councilwoman, lived in poverty as a single mother. She started the Everybody Eats dinner to provide meals to people in need in the community.

After her death, Minton, her godson, founded Almeta Crayton’s Community Programs.

The group is still looking for volunteers. Those interested can sign up on their website.