An expected four thousand of Portland’s most needy citizens got a boost from the Blazers and Fire on October 28, during the seventh annual Blazers Community Builders Harvest Dinner.

The team started serving meals at 2:00 p.m. and went well into the evening, providing a Thanksgiving style meal, free haircuts by Supercuts and health exams and critical services from Multnomah County Health department.

As Portland faces a 17% increase in its homeless population, the Harvest Dinner effort brings the Blazers together with numerous local nonprofits that serve the homeless and critically low income, such as Central City Concern, Portland Impact, Portland Rescue Mission and Albina Head Start. The Blazers Harvest Dinner is traditionally the Portland’s largest free dinner of its kind.

In addition to more than 4,000 meals the Blazers served at the Rose Garden, the staff and players took Harvest Dinner on the road via the North/Northeast Meals-On-Wheels program, delivering meals to homebound seniors. The Portland Fire hosted the Fire Kids Corner, providing games and activities, a reading corner where kids received their very own books and special visits from Fire players, Spot the Fire dog and the Blazers mascot, Blaze.

The dinner consisted of 1600 pounds of turkey, 1600 pounds of ham, 950 pounds of salad, 48 heads of lettuce, 55 cases of stuffing, 18 cases of vegetables, two cases of gravy mix, 6 cases of cranberry sauce, 10 lbs of salt, 10 lbs of black ground pepper, six cases of butter pats, 500 dozen dinner rolls, 480 pumpkin pies, 250 gallons of coffee, 1,200 pints of milk, 10,000 napkins, 5,000 plates, 50 pounds of coffee, 100 cases of bottled water and five kegs of soda pop.

The Blazers team, coaches, broadcasters, Wheel Blazers, BlazerDancers, staff, sponsors, the Blazers Booster Club, vendors and families contributed both time and money to the event. Numerous other organizations have also contributed to Harvest Dinner, including: Arrowhead Bottled Water, Fletcher's Fine Foods, Foster Farms, Food Services of America, West Farm Foods, Western Food Service Marketing, Reser's Fine Foods, Morton and Associates, Sugar Foods, PACTIV, Columbia Pacific Marketing, International Paper, Boyd's Coffee, Coca-Cola, Service Paper, Ocean Spray, Sara Lee Corporation, Standard TV And Appliance, Franz Bakery, Norpac Foods, Larsen's Creamery, Cow Creek, Fred Meyer, McDonald's, Pizza Hut and Honey Bucket. Gresham Kindercare and Sherwood La Petite Academy provided decorations for the event.