TRAVERSE CITY -- Jason Meadows looked at the dish of red, jellylike sauce and turned an eye toward his grandfather.
"What's this?" he asked.
"Cranberry sauce," his grandfather, Bob Peplinski, told him. "Do you want to try it?"
Jason, 8, crinkled his nose slightly and shook his head. The turkey and mashed potatoes would be just fine.
Peplinski received his own plate of all the Thanksgiving trimmings -- turkey, potatoes, stuffing, gravy and corn -- Wednesday at the Father Fred Foundation Night Before Thanksgiving Dinner.
Now in its 15th year, the annual meal at the Park Place Hotel dome serves those in the community without family or friends nearby and those who might not be able to celebrate otherwise.
About 180 people attended, organizers said. They had planned for 300.
Numbers have dropped in recent years, in part because of the other community meals that have launched, said David Abeel, Father Fred's development director. Staff have reduced the event's scope to just one meal time, instead of two as in past years.
"Over the years, we've had to sort of adjust," he said. "We just need to kind of listen to what's happening."
Peplinski came with his wife, Sue, stepdaughter Chevelle Hosler, and nine grandchildren. They all live together in Mancelona. It was the family's first time making the drive to Traverse City for the meal.
"Now we'll probably show up every year," Peplinski said, smiling.
He managed a bar in Detroit for 20 years until it was sold, and recently filed paperwork to receive disability payments. He began going to Father Fred a year ago for food, and will prepare a holiday dinner today using a turkey and "the whole fixings" from the foundation.
"It's tough to have everything and then lose everything," Peplinski said. "They help us out."
More than 90 people volunteered to work the event, from preparing dinner plates to clearing tables.
About 15 minutes before dinner was served, George Helms stood at the end of a long table in the hotel's kitchen and garnished the plates as they came down the assembly line.
He volunteers for the foundation once a week, and said his service work has been "enlightening."
"We're like any big city that has homeless people, needy people," said Helms, of Traverse City. "It's probably more good food than a lot of these people have had in months."
For some of them, it's the only holiday meal they will receive.
Evelyn Rose and her family have attended the Father Fred dinner for three years, but this year has been harder than most; her husband recently was laid off from a local lawn maintenance company, and it could take a month before he receives his first unemployment check.
"Not everybody has the opportunity to have Thanksgiving with their own families," said Rose, of East Bay Township, as she put a coat on her 14-month-old granddaughter Araya. "The way the economy is going right now, this might be our Thanksgiving dinner."
