Before we are much further removed from the holiday season, a salute is due to all those volunteers and contributors who made the holiday meals program so successful this past Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Organized by Warren Unit #11 of the American Legion Auxiliary, with support from American Legion Post 104 of Warren, the program provided 219 meals on Thanksgiving Day to the elderly, homebound and needy in Warren, Barrington, Bristol and Riverside and a few as far away as Pawtucket and Central Falls.

Another 183 meals were prepared and delivered on Christmas Day, with enough food left over to provide 17 meals to the Good Neighbors soup kitchen in Bristol .
That makes for a total of 419 individual meals for people who might not otherwise have had a meal on either holiday.

A small army of volunteers, along with anonymous monetary donors, made the meals program so successful once again this holiday season.
We do need to cite the following for special recognition:

• Market Street Pub in Warren whose patrons donated 33 turkeys for the Thanksgiving Day feed.
• Balasco’s Pizza on Market Street, which cooked 14 of those turkeys, provided enough apple crisp to feed everyone on Thanksgiving, and then cooked their famous Aunt Mary’s potatoes for another 200 people on Christmas.
• Sharon Massed who baked 150 mini-cakes for the Christmas meals.
• Father John Abreu and the parishoners of St. Thomas the Apostle Church who once again supported the program by opening their kitchen – and their hearts.
• The Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association of Rhode Island, the Warren Association of Vietnam veterans, and all the volunteers, who, by the way, supplied their own cars and gas.

The bottom line? Warren once again lived up to its reputation as the small town with the big heart.


Judy Fardig
Milwaukee Ave.

Mrs. Fardig is president of Warren Unit #11 of the American Legion Auxiliary, which is affiliated with American Legion Post #104 of Warren.