Thanksgiving Dinner

Veridian employees distributed 1,200 free Thanksgiving meals from the UAW Local 838 Union Hall in Waterloo, Iowa on Monday, November 20 for the 42nd annual Mike and Leona Adams Thanksgiving Dinner.

The event is named for the late board member of what is now Veridian Credit Union and his wife, Leona. Mike Adams was also a member of the UAW Local 838 in Waterloo. Mike and Leona brought both organizations together in November of 1982 to serve the inaugural free meal to families in need during the farm crisis. It's now northeast Iowa’s largest free, annual Thanksgiving meal, serving more than 1,000 meals each year with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, corn and pumpkin pie. The meal shifted from in-person dining to curbside pick-up and delivery in 2020.

"We originally intended to shift from curbside pick-up back to in-person dining after the pandemic," said Julie Gage, Veridian's Public Relations Strategist. "Instead, we learned that the efficiency of serving meals exclusively through delivery and curbside pick-up allows us to prepare and distribute more meals than we were ever able to in person."

Metropolitan Transit Authority (MET Transit) partnered to provide delivery service to anyone living in Cedar Falls, Evansdale or Waterloo without transportation. Meals were also delivered to Meals on Wheels recipients through the Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging. Other local contributors to the event include College Square Hy-Vee, Martin Bros. Distributing Co., Inc.  and the UAW Local 838.