Evelyn, shown above, and Tom LaMers were longtime hosts for Feast For Friends, Friends Care Community’s annual progressive dinner. The fundraiser will be held Saturday, Aug. 23, beginning at 5:30 p.m. (News archive photo)
Feast For Friends progressive dinner returns next month
- Published: July 16, 2025
Five years ago, Yellow Springs’ biggest progressive dinner never made it to the table — but next month, it returns to finally fill local appetites: Feast for Friends, Friends Care Community’s longtime annual fundraiser, will be held Saturday, Aug. 23, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
In March 2020, the News reported that Friends Care was slated to celebrate the 30th year of Feast for Friends, with 10 village homes set to open their doors for a shared evening of food and fellowship.
Just three days before its scheduled date, however, as the COVID-19 pandemic made its presence known in Ohio — the statewide stay-at-home order would be issued a week-and-a-half later — organizers made the reluctant call to cancel the fundraiser.
“We were hanging on by our fingernails,” longtime Feast for Friends planning committee member Carol Cottom told the News this week. “We still wanted to have it; we debated for about two weeks. … It was scheduled for a Saturday, but by the Wednesday before, that was it — we started calling people.”
After years of caution, organizers said the time is ripe for the return of Feast for Friends, as the world has slowly gained a renewed comfort with gathering together.
“We think, finally, people are comfortable enough to be in other people’s homes,” Friends Care board member Todd Kreeger said.
At the same time, the fundraiser aims to support Friends Care residents in venturing out into the world through the purchase of a new, 15-seat accessible bus. Kreeger said the organization’s current bus has an unreliable wheelchair lift, limiting residents’ opportunities to attend outings or make routine trips if they don’t have family nearby.
“We’re trying to raise $150,000 and what we need is a fully functional bus,” he said. “A 15-passenger bus doesn’t require a CDL license to operate, and it’s big enough that nurses and other staff could also ride.”
The format for this year’s Feast for Friends will remain mostly the same, with those attending meeting up at Friends Care for light appetizers and wine. While there, diners will meet their assigned dinner companions and be given directions to hosts’ homes, where they will adjourn for dinner. In years past, diners have returned to Friends Care to share dessert together, but this year, dessert will be served in host homes — a change Cottom said was made based on observing three decades’ worth of progressive dinners.
“It was difficult to get folks to come back to Friends Care; you’d be having a great conversation and then, ‘Oh wow, look at the time, we’ve got to go’” she said. “So I think this will be a nicer ending to the evening.”
Another change is the time of year in which the fundraiser is being held; it was scheduled in March for many years to avoid conflicting with other local fundraisers, but Kreeger said organizers planned this year’s event for August to ensure warm weather and the option of outside dining.
“We thought, potentially, that some people still may not be 100% comfortable gathering around the table indoors,” he said.
Organizers expect to seat around 80 guests this year; planning committee members will work to place guests in homes that match dietary and mobility needs, including at least one fully vegetarian household and accommodations for gluten-free diners.
Friends Care Community opened in 1980 through the work of local Quakers and a village-wide fundraising push. A decade later, Friends Care board member Char Schiff proposed the idea that would become Feast for Friends: enlist local cooks, host intimate dinners and use the proceeds to support the growing facility.
“[Schiff] was a very good cook — and still is — and she had lots of friends who were good cooks,” said Cottom. “She laid out the framework … and it just kind of continued to grow. It was what I would call ‘volunteer heavy’ — people doing appetizers, getting flowers, making desserts. Pods of people all pulling it together.”
In the decades since opening, Friends Care has expanded, and now accommodates 50 residents who receive skilled nursing, 20 assisted living residents and 16 rehabilitation patients; on its grounds there are also 22 independent living units.
Like most long-term care providers, Friends Care is “not immune” from cuts to Medicaid that have been threatened at both the state and federal levels — which is why the institution “needs the community now more than ever,” Kreeger said.
“We’re slowly starting to bring back some of the gathering fundraisers,” he said. “The ones we’re choosing have a lot to do with community. We need people to see us, remember us — and know that we still need help.”
Kristine Hofstra, who joined the Friends Care board last year, but has been a supporter of Feast for Friends in years past, said that, for many longtime supporters, the fundraiser represents not only a good meal, but a chance to deepen village ties around the table.
“In exchange for a good meal, people are willing to open their wallet,” Hofstra said. “But my favorite part is, you sit down at a table with people you may have seen around town but never really spoken to — and you make new friends.”
Tickets for Feast for Friends are $100 per person, $90 of which is tax deductible; ticket sales are open through Aug. 8 and are available online at http://www.tinyurl.com/feastforfriends.
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