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11/03/2021 09:30 AMThe North Madison Congregational Church hosts its annual Harvest Dinner on Saturday, Nov. 6 from 5 to 8 p.m. Volunteers will craft more than 300 take-out meals that can be picked up or delivered and curbside pick-up will be in the church parking lot at 1271 Durham Road in Madison.
Reservations are required and pre-payment is encouraged to simplify the pickup process. All volunteers are fully vaccinated, so safety is a priority, and participants can customize their own meals, as far as items, and amounts and flavor of pie.
Eileen McCann has been the director of the event for more than 10 years and said the dinner has become a treasured get together for members and participants.
“It’s not just Madison people or Killingworth people who partake in this, but people from all over—New Britain or Milford. People in the church really have a great affection for the Harvest Dinner,” said McCann.
COVID issues canceled last year’s dinner, so members are very excited about hosting once again, even if it only a pickup event in 2021.
“This summer when it looked as though we could serve our traditional Harvest Dinner with both dine-in and take-out choices, we were filled with hope and expectations of returning to normal,” McCann said, “but then the September COVID uptick in Connecticut made us re-think our plans.”
According to McCann, the Harvest Dinner Team quickly reconfigured what it could safely do based on feedback from a congregation survey and agreed to offer take-out meals only, with a new delivery option. The event dates back to the 1920s or even earlier, according to church members.
For McCann and all who help prepare and serve the meal, “The best part is the preparation, side by side,” she said. “So many people in the church just love to work on this harvest dinner—the peeling of the potatoes, the peeling of the apples, then making of the pies. The members love this tradition. We love seeing all generations come together and our teens inviting their friends to join them in assembling pies on Friday or peeling potatoes early Saturday morning.”
According to the church, members have been holding some form of this event since the 1920s and it has become a cherished part of the organization’s outreach efforts.
“Especially in the time of COVID, we have been so disconnected from each other. In fact, we are just getting back to in-person worship this coming week, so this is exciting,” said McCann. “This is important for our church and the Madison community to get back to being just normal. This is important for us to at least provide some comfort for the community.”
Each meal comes in a large eco-friendly take-out container with generous helpings of roast turkey, homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin or cranberry muffins, and cranberry relish as well as mashed rutabagas, which are grown by church members on their farm just a mile from the church. Participants can also order whole apple or pumpkin pies or jars of the church’s famous secret-recipe salad dressing.
The event also helps with the church’s fundraising efforts and their missions, according to McCann.
Reservations for the dinner are required and may be made by calling the church office at 203-421-3241 or by email office@northmadisoncc.org with the words “Harvest Dinner” in the subject line.
New this year, patrons can visit the church website www.northmadisoncc.org and order online (using Shopify) from the Harvest Dinner page.