DAYTON — A Dayton-area restaurant offered free Thanksgiving lunches to the community on Thursday.
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News Center 7 crews watched as hundreds of people got a plate from Amar India.
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“So, this year we were planning to do it on Thanksgiving or Christmas. There are many people without family or food, a meal especially on this day. So, we thought about this and planned the Thanksgiving lunch,” restaurant owner Mandip Padda said.
People who attended said they were not only thankful for a free meal but also a welcoming space to gather.
“Our family is celebrating tomorrow. We saw the advertisement for this being open and we weren’t doing anything today since our family is celebrating tomorrow. We thought, we love Indian food, and this is a great restaurant and we’re loving it. Very generous,” Everett Farms said.
“Our family is now all over the country so, this is a chance to gather. And for us, typically we do Thanksgiving with Vietnamese food. However, ours is a mix of both, meat eater and Indian, a great blend,” Baw Nguyen said.
This isn’t the first time Amar India restaurant has offered free meals to the community, but now they’re partnering with the Dayton Food Bank.
“We are doing this to give back to the community. We are collecting Dayton Food Bank donations. We did this thing, two or three times in the past. One for 9/11, one for Katrina. This is the third time we’re doing this,” Padda said.
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