Some fun facts to share about Community Feast. Since it was our last event, I wanted to give you a look behind the scenes. We had 120 reservations this past Saturday.

We had 26 staff members for the evening, 8 food staff, 8 dish staff and 10 wait staff. All of the 8 food staff were Mengarelli family members, including their cousin Mary who drove here from Washington State, working her vacation around Community Feast so she could experience it!!

The dish guru has always been my brother, John Harrigan. He and his crew of 8 always have the most fun, and in between they washed 2,156 things. Hosting at the fairgrounds, he had access to hot water tank heated water. The tank could not keep up, and we were prepared for that because we were afraid that would happen. Ted Mitchell loaned us his two giant turkey fryers and the propane tanks to go with them so the dish crew had plenty of hot water because of that plan!!

We had 10 friends waiting on guests. Curtis Thom is our coordinator, mostly making sure each crew had just what they needed and worked together to make sure the evening went smoothly. My husband, Craig, drove Mike Crocker's golf cart with a truck bed on it to deliver those thousands of things to the dish crew so they could do their job. Patty Harrigan, my sister-in-law effectively led the wait staff with help from her son-in-law Scott Lee. This thing is truly a family affair and I am so proud of that distinction!

And the crowning glory of the night was the Cookie Bar which was the sixth course on the menu. The Mengarelli family baked all sorts of delicious morsels for days ahead, serving 1,691 cookies. Each and every one was gone by the end of the night.

I am so sad this is over. I am proud of what we created from scratch, merging our two families into a partnership that was perfect for realizing our dream. Thank you, Rachelle and all the Mengarelli family for working with us to pull this thing off. After 5 hosted events over 4 years time, I do believe we knocked this one out of the park. I can truly say with confidence that Jack and Madaline and Augie and Cleo are proud of their kids.