Why Butternut Still Has a Free Thanksgiving Dinner After Other Towns Dropped Theirs

"They did it in Park Falls and several different places and each time they couldn't get help or it didn't work out so they quit doing it," Larry Meverden told the Price County Review in 2024. "So we picked it up and started doing it."

A free Thanksgiving meal has turned out to be hard to keep going in this part of the Northwoods. Meverden says those other towns stopped when they couldn't get help or the meal didn't work out. In Butternut, the work and the cost are split among many businesses, clubs and volunteers. That approach shows in how the food gets paid for, where it gets cooked and who does the cooking. It also shows in the rest of the village's calendar between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The details for Thanksgiving Day, and tomorrow's deadline

The Butternut Area Business Alliance is sponsoring the free dinner again this year. It runs Thursday, Nov. 26, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Butternut School Commons, 312 Wisconsin St., according to the Butternut and Chippewa News column for Nov. 5, 2026.

• Menu: turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, a roll, cranberry sauce, dessert and a beverage
• Cost: free, with a free-will offering appreciated
• Carryouts: available
• Deliveries: only to addresses inside the village of Butternut
• To-go orders: call Cindy at 715-769-3113 by Friday, Nov. 20
• Access: handicap accessible

The to-go deadline is tomorrow. If you're ordering a plate for yourself or for a neighbor in the village, call before the end of Friday. Last year's deadline was also the Friday before Thanksgiving, Nov. 21, 2025.

Deliveries stay inside the village because of distance. The surrounding area is "just too wide" to deliver to other towns, Meverden told the Price County Review. Takeouts are still a big part of the day, about 40 a year by his count.

How every business in the village ends up on the donor list

The Business Alliance paid for the dinner "pretty much alone in the early years," Meverden said in the 2024 feature. By that year, personal and business donations covered the whole meal, and the alliance no longer needed to put money in.

That is why a tradition this small has stuck. "There isn't anyone who isn't donating either cash or food," he said, and he described the dinner as one where every business in Butternut gives something, whether that's $25, $100 or food and supplies.

The 2024 donors the Price County Review named show how widely the load was spread that year:

• Super One Foods donated 85 pounds of boneless turkey breast
• Kwik Trip gave a couple hundred dollars in gift cards for bread, butter and other basics
• Area banks and credit unions gave money
• Trail Midgets ATV Club of Butternut made a large donation
• Butternut Cafe and Ridge Runners gave in-kind help, usually a case of food or whatever ingredients were needed
• Dollar General in Butternut supplied aluminum foil pans, dinner rolls and other items

The list covers a grocery chain, a convenience store, banks, an ATV club, a café, a tavern and a discount store. Most of them gave something different. Meverden also said Park Falls businesses "have been very excellent too," so the support reaches beyond the village.

That list comes from 2024. Each year's donors depend on who steps up that fall.

A school kitchen and a Wednesday shift

Money is one part of the job. The other is labor, and Butternut's answer to that came from moving the dinner.

The first dinner was held at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Butternut. Later the school agreed to host it in the Commons, and Meverden called that "the smart decision." The Commons is a main-floor cafeteria just inside the school's main entrance, with an accessible entry and parking nearby. Behind it is a kitchen with several ovens, walk-in coolers, freezers and storage space. "The school has a phenomenal kitchen," he said.

That kitchen lets a small crew cook a large meal over two days. As the Price County Review described it, Larry and Shelley Meverden do most of the planning. A core group of seven volunteers comes in the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to roast, cut and roll the turkeys and make the salads, desserts and anything else that can be done ahead. More volunteers come Thursday to serve and clean up.

Help has not been hard to find. "I usually have people come up to me and say, 'if you need someone next year, please call,' and I do," Meverden said.

The food is made from scratch. The turkeys are cooked fresh, the dressing follows his mother-in-law's recipe, and the sweet potatoes are fresh, not canned. Volunteers put tablecloths on the tables, decorate the Commons and serve guests at their seats. "It feels like a home," he said. "We try."

Who comes, and how many

The first dinner drew about 80 people, Meverden told the Price County Review. The 2023 dinner drew about 125. "A lot depends on the weather," he said.

That is roughly 50 percent growth since the first year. Another 40 or so meals a year go out the door as takeouts.

The organizers say plainly who the dinner is for. "Anybody can come, and please come," Meverden said. "It doesn't make a difference your income, it doesn't make a difference where you live, just come and enjoy the company and the food." He said guests come from as far as Glidden and Fifield. Because the holiday falls during deer season, hunters staying in the area stop in for a meal away from camp.

He also described households who would rather go out than cook a big meal, and people with no family nearby. For him, the point of the day is having somewhere to go.

The same storefronts carry the season into December

After Thanksgiving, the same approach shows up on Butternut's December calendar.

The Dollar General in Butternut, which supplied pans and rolls for the 2024 dinner, is also a Giving Tree site this year for the Santa's Elves Foundation. The foundation is in its 30th year of gathering Christmas gifts for children in the area. People take a tag from a tree, buy the gift and return it unwrapped with the tag attached by Dec. 5, the Price County Review reported. Volunteers wrap and sort gifts every Wednesday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. through Dec. 19 in the basement of Fifield Congregational Church, N11389 Central Ave. The organization expects to serve about 300 children.

That same Saturday, Dec. 5, the village calendar lists a Farmers/Craft Market from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Business Alliance has also held Christmas in the Village on the first Saturday of December. The 2025 event ran Dec. 6 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to the Butternut and Chippewa News column for Nov. 20, 2025. Vendors set up in downtown businesses and Butternut Community Park. Visitors picked up cookies, hot chocolate and a punch card at Village Hall, then filled the card for a raffle-basket drawing at 3:15 p.m. Music in the park and the Butternut Community Park Meat Raffle both started at 3 p.m.

The Ashland Daily Press reported that the 2025 event also included a food stand run by Butternut Girls Basketball, along with caroling and live Christmas music at the Butternut Area Historical Museum.

The year before, the alliance's 2024 flyer listed 39 vendors in 15 locations around the village. Those included Village Hall, Carl's Place, Double D's Pub & Pizza, Butternut Ridge Runners, Lori's Nook, Fanatical Fish, Mix It Up Marketplace, Butternut Feed Store, the American Legion Hall and the Butternut High School Commons.

Many of the same names show up on both events. Ridge Runners gave food for Thanksgiving and hosted vendors in December. The School Commons serves turkey in November and hosted vendors in December. The Business Alliance sponsors one event and created the other.

The weather didn't affect Christmas in the Village in 2025, according to the Butternut and Chippewa News column for Dec. 11, 2025.

Matt and Brittany Schultz grew up in the Northwoods, and they see the same thing in land: what a place is worth depends on the people who keep it going, like the clubs, cafés and volunteers who show up every November. If you're thinking about buying or selling a home, cabin or acreage around Butternut and want advice from people who know the area, United Country Real Estate | Northern Wisconsin Lifestyle Properties is glad to talk it through. Schedule a Consultation.