FOOD DONATIONS • FINANCIAL SUPPORT • SLIDESHOWS • GIVING THANKS • DIRECTIONS
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The Eleventh Annual Community Dinner
Sunday, March 2, 2008 at 1 PM
McDougle School Cafetorium
900 Old Fayetteville Rd. in Carrboro
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The Community Dinner is a community building event, crossing economic, racial, religious and ethnic barriers and presenting a wealth of wonderful, culturally diverse food and entertainment. This year we had lots of great performances and plenty of scrumptious food from local restaurants who donate side dishes. Donations were great this year! Many thanks to all of the restaurants who donated food and all of the financial donations. A large number of the tickets for the dinner are distributed to people who might not otherwise be able to afford to attend. You can feed a family of four with a $22 donation, and this year we fed plenty! Thanks to all who made it happen.
The Community Dinner is not a fundraising event, but rather an awareness raising event, designed to bring people from all walks of life together for an afternoon of great food and entertainment.
This year we enlisted the help of Noah Ranells, Agriculture Economic Development Coordinator for Orange County, to assist us in using
local area farmers to provide locally grown vegetables for the preparation of our Dinner. North Carolina vegetables just taste better!
For our 2008 Dinner, Muriel Williman of Orange County Solid Waste, assisted us in making the event a Zero Waste Community Event (95% composted or recycled) with all of our diinerware made from compostable materials.
 OUR COOKS:
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In 2008,
Mildred Council, from Mama Dip's Kitchen, coordinated the menu and, together with Chef Brian Stapleton, the corprate executive chef for Aramark, and former chef at the Carolina Inn, Bon from Bon's Home Cookin', Tony from Bandido's Cafe & Crawdaddy's, and Tandoor Indian Restaurant, provided the Dinner's main courses. |
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In addition, many local restaurants and churches donated side dishes and desserts to complete the feast. This gave attendees the opportunity to taste food from our many community partners who contributed dishes, all in one place.
Displays in the corridor leading to the Cafetorium offered information from groups partnering with the Dinner, explaining who they are and what they do to make our community a better place.
OUR 2008 PERFORMERS:
Leading you to the door was bagpiper Yance Covington, playing his pipes. Yance has played in the Triangle area for many years and is a familiar face in our community.
Our emcee is Ron Stutts, long-time announcer at WCHL Radio. Ron has been waking up the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community since the 70s. Wake up with Ron and the WCHL Morning News, from 6 to 9am, Monday through Friday for the latest local stories, weather, sports, traffic, live interviews with the people of our community, and a little touch of irreverance thrown in for good measure. When Ron's not on the air, he's probably getting ready to emcee an event like ours.
Our entertainment roster included Skeedaddle, a string band playing early 20th century music, consisting of Anastasia Maddox, Hugh Crumley, Fred Levine, and Steve Fishman.
The Orange County Jammers Senior Cheer Leading Group are Phyllis Fearrington, William Fonville, Marilyn Guthrie, Lyn Lyght and Clem Self, the Senior Cheerleading Squad for Orange County. This squad is a part of the Senior Games for Orange County and the State's Senior Games. In 2007, the squad competed in the Cheerleading Finals and won the Bronze Medal for the state. The squad members are from Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough.
The TROSA Band consists of staff and residents of the Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers program. TROSA is a non-profit two-year program. The band has been playing community oriented events in the Triangle for 10 years.
The Suzuki Academy of North Carolina is a not-for-profit music school dedicated to nurturing each child's sprout of talent by providing comprehensive violin and music training based on Dr. Shinichi Suzuki's philosophy. They currently serve 60+ children ages 4 and older in the Chapel Hill/Durham area. Some of the Suzuki Academy 's young violinists will perform works by Bach and Handel as well as popular folk songs. www.suzukiacademy.org.
The Peruvian-American Association of North Carolina is a dance group of the Peruvian-Americans. Based in the triangle, they aim to showcase Peruvian culture through dance by creating a fun and energetic dance group. All of the members are volunteers and fully committed to having a great time and sharing Peru's beautiful dances. NCPeruDanza.
The Carrboro High School Jazz Band is a first year program with 16 musicians in grades 9 - 11, but they sound like they've been playing together forever.
Running sound this year was Erich Lieth.
OUR 2008 SPONSORS: The Carrboro Citizen, The Carrboro Branch Library, The Cultural Arts Group, Mama Dip's Kitchen, Bon's Home Cookin', The Carolina Inn, Bandido's Mexican Cafe & Crawdaddy's, Tandoor Indian Restaurant, Chapel Hill News, WCHL, UniqueOrn Enterprises & Carrboro.com, The Town of Carrboro, The Town of Chapel Hill, The Episcopal Church of the Advocate, The Friends of the Pearl and Robert Seymour Center, Progress Energy, Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, Community Action Network, Carol Woods Retirement Community, Chapel Hill Kehillah, St Paul AME Church, Plum Spring Clinic - Integrated Medical Care, The Chapel Hill Museum Shop, The Orange County Department of Human Rights and Relations, Orange County Economic Development Commission, UNC-CH School of Public Health, Preservation Society of Chapel Hill, Friends of the Carrboro Branch Library, Triangle Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, Carol Woods Retirement Community, The Carrboro UPS store, Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce, Townsend, Bertram and Company, Town Planner, and Balloons and Tunes.
OUR FOOD DONORS: Mama Dip's Kitchen, Bon's Homecookin', The Carolina Inn, Bandido's Mexican Cafe & Crawdaddy's, Tandoor Indian Restaurant, Jade Palace, The Chapel Hill Restaurant Group (411 West, Squids, 518 West, Spanky's & Mez), pies from Ruth Sanford and cakes from Louise Parrish - both of the Carrboro Farmers' Market, desserts from St. Paul AME Church, kugels from members of the Chapel Hill Kehillah, bread from the Great Harvest Bread Company, Lantern, Qdoba, Weaver Street Market, Il Palio Ristorante (at the Siena Hotel), Margaret's Cantina, Bonne Soiree Restaurant, Mediterranean Deli, Trader Joes', Whole Foods Market of Chapel Hill, Cliff's Meat Market,
SYSCO Foods, Chapel Of The Cross, University Presbyterian Church, Aldersgate United Methodist Church, United Church of Chapel Hill, Harris Teeter - Meadowmont, Harris Teeter - Carrboro, Harris Teeter - Harris Teeter, University Mall and Kroger's.
SEEKING VOLUNTEERS, SUPPORTERS AND DONORS
 We are always seeking volunteers to help prepare for the dinner, including advance and day of preparations, so keep us in mind if you have some time you can give as we look forward to 2009.
Our committee can always use more members and fresh ideas!
We are also always seeking donations of both food and money to help pay for dinners for the less fortunate in our community. All groups and food donors are recognized above. Individual financial donors are recognized on our Donors page. If you can, make a pledge for our 2009 dinner! |
Food Donations • Financial Support • Slideshows • Giving Thanks • Directions
© Copyright 2000-2008. Please request permission before using photos.
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View the article on the Community Dinner in the May/June, 2008 issue of 
