EVANSTON — Evanston restaurant Jody’s Diner offered guests a free dinner on Thanksgiving Day, and over a hundred people showed up to take advantage of the opportunity. Owner Jody Burton said she had a lot of help putting the dinner on and was happy with the results. 

Burton said several organizations had donated food and time to make the dinner possible, including Liberty Foods of Chandler, Arizona; Evanston’s Calvary Chapel which donated turkeys and hams; and local Evanston Girl Scouts who donated homemade pies. Other local individuals also contributed, and Jody’s staff members donated their time and volunteered to work on the holiday.

Burton said the idea started last year following an inquiry about whether the restaurant would be serving Thanksgiving dinner. Burton initially said they would be closed, but after thinking about it she changed her mind. “I cook, it’s what I do,” she said. “But I do all of this cooking for my family and every year a lot of it doesn’t get eaten and it gets wasted. I decided it would be better to cook for people who otherwise wouldn’t get a Thanksgiving dinner.” 

She said, “We try really hard to make it homey and have homemade food.” Burton said there was a line waiting at the door when the restaurant opened at 11 a.m.

The plan is to make the free Thanksgiving dinner an annual tradition at Jody’s, where this year the volunteer staff cooked for about 150 people. Burton said they couldn’t have done it without the donations from the community and her staff, adding, “I’m very proud.”