PORTLAND, Maine — Ben Moore has a new Thanksgiving tradition.
Before heading over to his in-laws in Hollis, for the last couple of years, Moore has volunteered his Thanksgiving afternoon delivering free meals to Mainers in need in Greater Portland.
“Every Thanksgiving it gets me out of the house doing something, but it also is fulfilling,” he said.
This year, Moore was one of ten drivers who stepped up to deliver the nearly 300 meals made by Crispy Gai, a Portland restaurant that’s been serving southeastern Asian street food since 2021, and handing out free meals every Thanksgiving and Christmas Day for just as long. The restaurant is one of a constellation of Maine businesses, nonprofits and eateries that come together every holiday season to offer free meals.
“It just kind of felt like the right thing to do,” Cyle Reynolds, co-owner and chef of Crispy Gai, said.
Some of the volunteers bagging and delivering the meals of chicken, rice and potato salad for Crispy Gai on Thursday were local business owners themselves who closed for the holiday. Two of the volunteers, Bread & Friends co-owners Jeremy Broucek and Jessica Rattey, made and donated hundreds of cookies for the effort. The owners of the local bar Regards and restaurant Mr. Tuna were also helping to bag up orders.
“It’s a pretty tight knit community in Portland, and I think that only helps fuel these kinds of things,” Broucek said.
The first year Crispy Gai pulled this effort off, in 2021, only 80 people signed up. Reynolds realized that he could reach more people by partnering with a delivery service, because many of those in need don’t have a vehicle and couldn’t get to the restaurant.
That’s why Shelly Sohns, a 40-year-old Portland resident who works in construction, signed up for the service. Thanksgiving had been shaping up to be a depressing holiday for Sohns, who was already figuring out how to shop for the holidays with no car and a 15-month-old in tow when her beloved cat died last week.
“I was too depressed to go,” Sohns said. “It kind of saved my Thanksgiving.”
To get meals sent directly to Mainers like Sohns, Reynolds forged a partnership with CarHop, a food and drink delivery service active in several states including Maine and Massachusetts. The company donates its time planning delivery routes for Crispy Gai. Now the service works like a well-oiled machine, with volunteers coming and going all afternoon in shifts. Last year, the restaurant delivered nearly 500 of them.
Moore drove to a handful of homes around Portland and Westbrook, including Sohn’s, on Thursday with tens of meals to deliver. He likes how it feels to drive up to a house, hand off a meal and know that the person will eat well today.
“You deliver to a really sketchy part of town and, you’re like, I’m glad you’re getting a meal, maybe you wouldn’t otherwise. I’m glad we could help,” Moore said. “All I had to do was drive.”
