W&N holds 11th annual Thanksgiving dinner for community

Article and Photos by Mary Alice Murphy

W&N Enterprises hosted its 11th annual Thanksgiving Dinner for the community Sunday afternoon, Nov. 23, 2014, at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Swan Street.

A steady stream of people entered and exited the building. Some stayed and ate dinner in the hall, while listening to music by Jericho; others carried meals out in packages to go.

Debbie Nennich, who along with her husband, Jim, owns W&N Enterprises, the company that owns the two Food Baskets in Silver City and Bayard, as well as the Snappy Marts throughout the county, talked to the Beat.

Nennich said last year they, with the help of many volunteers, served 1,396 dinners. "This year we added turkeys and hams, and have prepared 26 turkeys and 22 hams, plus all the fixings." To get the count of those served they count the to-go dinners, as well as the number of plates filled. "We add food every year, and haven't run out yet."

This year, in addition to W&N employees, Nennich said members of the Gaffney-Oglesby Marine Corps League Detachment 1328, Cub Scouts of Pack 930, Kiwanis, Mario Quintana and Senior Olympians, Silver City-Grant County Chamber of Commerce, and "our potato man" Art Rodriguez, helped to cook and serve the meal.

"Jericho singers volunteer their time each year to be the entertainment," Nennich said.

Her brother, Mark Winger and his wife, Peggy, come from San Angelo, Texas, to help every year, along with their friend Bill Bartlett.

"We started serving at 12:05, and it's 2:05 now," Nennich said. "It's been steady the whole time. The line has not let up."

She said she and Jim were raised as Air Force "brats. We always spent the holidays wherever we were with our friends and the Air Force family. Our parents raised us always to give service to community and to be part of the community. We came from modest means. I remember using the same milk, if we wanted more cereal, and we added water to the catsup to make it go farther."

"This is where our dream of owning our own business came true, so this is our way of saying thank you every year," Nennich said. "When my family was stationed at Frankfurt, Germany, our house was the first stop for new arrivals. My mother, from whom I learned to cook, always had a delicious dinner for the new ones.

"God's been good to us," Nennich continued, "so we try to make this dinner really special. One of the older couples, who have been coming for years, brought me roses. It was so sweet, it made me cry."

From comments heard around the room, it was a special day for many, who might otherwise not have had a Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings.