Photo: Every November for the past eight years, Jim and Deborah Nennich of W&N Enterprises have hosted a Thanksgiving-style meal for the community. This year the W of W&N, Mark and Peggy Winger of San Angelo, Texas, also helped with the event. From left are Mark Winger, his wife Peggy, Deborah and Jim Nennich. (More photos will be posted to the Photo Essay Page.)
For the eighth year in a row, Jim and Deborah Nennich of W&N Enterprises, which owns the two Food Basket stores, several Snappy Marts and The Wrangler Restaurant, hosted “A Time for Sharing,” a Thanksgiving-style meal, with turkey and ham and the works. The W part of the name of the company is Mark Winger, who, along with his wife, Peggy, had driven in from San Angelo, Texas, to help with this year's event.
“It's a blessing for us to do this,” Peggy Winger said, as she helped among the tables set up at the Knight of Columbus Hall in Silver City
The Nennichs have said in past years that they are simply giving back to the community, in gratitude for the community's support of their businesses. The meal is offered at no cost to anyone in the community who wishes to partake of a meal with friends and neighbors
Last year, the Nennichs fed more than 1,200 people at the dinner. This year, one hour after the doors had opened, more than 500 people had come to the feast.
“We started working on this a month ago, by organizing the dates, the equipment and the ordering,” Deborah Nennich said. “At three weeks, we started setting up volunteers and collecting toys for the kids who come to the dinner.”
This year, about 60 volunteers helped prepare and serve the food.
Deborah Nennich named some of the high profile helpers. Western New Mexico President Joseph Shepard and his wife, Marcela, and WNMU Vice President of Institutional Advancement Linda Kay Jones and her husband, former Silver City Mayor, were among the 20 volunteers preparing the food, including the turkeys and stuffing, on Saturday evening before the Sunday afternoon event. Decorating was also done the day before.
State Sen. Howie Morales and Grant County Assessor Randy Villa could be seen serving food on Sunday afternoon. The Gaffney-Oglesby Marine Corps League Detachment 1328 members were to arrive at 2 p.m. to help serve.
“At 9 a.m. Sunday morning, we do the set up for the meal,” Deborah Nennich said. “We cooked 20 24-to-25-pound turkeys and 20 hams, 48 pans of stuffing, 350-400 pounds of mashed potatoes, corn, fruit salad, tossed salad and homemade white and whole wheat rolls, with eight full-sized sheet cakes for dessert.”
Jim Nennich said 600 pounds of turkey and 200 pounds of ham would be served.
“We ran out of turkey one year, but still had ham, and another year, we ran out of ham, but still had turkey,” Jim Nennich said. “The first year we held the event, we had left-overs, which we took to the Gospel Mission. Since then, we've been right on.”
Santa Claus made a visit to the event, and Jericho, a gospel music group, provided the music, to which many folks were seen swaying in rhythm.