From left, Jenny Hawkins dishes up dessert under the watchful eyes of Judith Robb and Marilyn Hulse at Wallowa's Sunday Dinner on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, at the Wallowa Senior Center.

WALLOWA — Chicken fettuccini, broccoli, salad, greens and apple crisp were on the menu Sunday night, Oct. 20, during Wallowa’s Sunday Dinner with Friends, but there was so much more.

Some 125 meals were served to those friends who came to the Wallowa Senior Center to enjoy both the meal and the company.

“Great,” John Raines said of the event. “I’m on my second meal.”

“I love it,” Scott Faddis said. “The food’s great, but the company’s excellent. John’s my neighbor and we get to chew the fat while we’re chewing the food.”

The greens were from By Meep’s Farm Fresh Microgreens and included “Rambo radish,” sunflower, red cabbage and kale, all of which had been harvested earlier that day by 3 p.m.

Sunday’s affair was the fifth of a series of nine being held at the senior center this fall. They run from 5-7 p.m. through Nov. 17, according to Jenny Hawkins, one of the food organizers, and follow a similar series put on at The Place in Joseph by the Joseph United Methodist Church.

She said Wallowa just this year expanded its free Sunday dinners.

“Wallowa has for decades had free community Thanksgiving and Christmas meals, but this is first time we’ve expanded it out for the fall series,” she said.

Hawkins said Sunday’s offering actually served about 170 meals, including numerous to-go meals, though they don’t want to encourage those since in can lead to a shortage of what’s available for those who attend in person.

“We actually ran out of food,” she said. “We want to prioritize people who come in.”

That leads to the most important feature of the dinners — the feeling of community and camaraderie people share while eating.

Dennis Moats was attending his fifth dinner.

“It’s really good,” he said. “We’re very grateful to the helpers.”

Across the table, Hazel Ortega agreed.

“It’s wonderful,” she said. “The dinner here’s been great.”

Hawkins works with Marilyn Hulse and other volunteers to get the food on the table and Pastor Stephen Kliewer of Lostine Presbyterian Church, who is the financial adviser.

Each week a new set of volunteers helping in the kitchen and the dining room. They come from various organizations. This week it was 19 volunteers from Winding Waters Medical Clinic.

Other volunteers have come from the Wallowa High School Honors Society and Rotary Club, the Lostine Rascals and Wild Bunch 4-H clubs, the Joseph Branch Trail Consortium, members of the St Pius X Catholic Church of Wallowa, Wallowa Resources, the Red Hat Society, members of the Joseph Methodist Church and the Oregon Department of Forestry fire crew.

Groups and individuals such as the Lostine Presbyterian Church, Friends of the Wallowa School, Kate Loftus, the Wallowa Assembly of God Church and the South Fork Grange also volunteer to provide desserts to accompany the dinners.

Business sponsors provide the bulk of the food for the dinners. Little Bear Drive-In donated 100 pounds of locally produced beef. Others include Wallowa Food City, SSS Goebels Gas Station, Nails a la Carte by Anita, Emmett Construction, Buttercup Brew, Enterprise Electric, the city of Wallowa, Heartwood Biomass and Yates Construction.

Hawkins said there’s more to the dinner than just feeding those who walk in the door. There’s a donation jar to help offset expenses of the dinner. Anything left over goes to the county food bank.

On Sunday, they collected $450, she said.

It takes a little effort to round up the volunteers, Hulse said, but it’s not a heavy lift. 

“We ask them,” Hulse said. “We have no problem getting volunteers. Wallowa’s that kind of community.”

Wallowa’s Sunday Dinner with Friends is held each Sunday through Nov. 17 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Wallowa Senior Center, 204 E. Second St. in Wallowa. The dinners are free.