Clawdaddy’s restaurant gives away hundreds of Thanksgiving meals

MONROE, La. (KNOE) - A local restaurant is giving back to the community in a huge way. Clawdaddy’s in Monroe fed at least 500 people a proper thanksgiving dinner on Nov. 24, 2022.

“Whether your family is out of town, or your kids are off to college,” said the owner of Clawdaddy’s, Luke Parrish. “Or if money is tight, but really it’s just so everyone can be a family together.”

Monroe resident Dee Thompson said joining her friends at Clawdaddy’s was the perfect way to spend her Thanksgiving.

“I’m by myself, and I said why should cook all that food just for one person? Let’s go out there and try it and it is delicious,” said Thompson.

10-year-old Chance Wood spent his holiday handing out sweet treats. Wood said he’s thankful he got to spend his day helping others.

“We’re blessed I guess, we’re blessed to do everything I guess, and I’m blessed to do this,” said Wood.

As one can imagine, a whole lot of prep goes into preparing a thanksgiving meal for hundreds of people. Parrish said 65 volunteers helped him make this feast possible.

“We fry turkeys and then we sell them and then the profit from there, we buy dressings, turkeys hams, briskets, and veggies, everything you can imagine, desserts, and also the community brings in food and pies and homemade stuff,” said Parrish. “If you think about the logistics of unpacking 205 turkeys, unpacking, taking out the gizzards, the necks, and then injecting all of them.”

Parrish spreads kindness through food and said the free meals are his way of giving back to the community that has supported his restaurant from the very beginning.

“We wouldn’t have our restaurant if it wasn’t for the community here, they take really good care of us, Sterlington, Monroe, West Monroe, they’ve just stepped up and we have a lot of people that support us so we wanted to give back… and the only way I could think of how to do it was cook,” said Parrish.

In addition to the feast at Clawdaddy’s, volunteers delivered around 200 meals to people who couldn’t make it to the restaurant.

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