Annual Free Thanksgiving Dinner in Downtown Loveland, Colorado

The holidays are a time about giving and Loveland has been giving out a free Thanksgiving dinner since the year 2000. Coloradans can be proud of what a small group have worked on for so many years, feeding so many people.

2025 marked the 25th year of this free meal, where people can come sit down and enjoy, or have delivered to them (within the Loveland area.) It's hard to imagine exactly how many people have enjoyed the dinner after so many years, but it's definitely more than 10,000. I, myself, don't recall knowing about it until I saw a flyer about in 2025.

Google Street View

Loveland's Associated Veterans Club, where the free meals are served, dates back to 1919. The building, at 3rd and Cleveland, was once the cafeteria and movie house of a German POW camp in Greeley.

According to the Reporter-Herald, the Ann Jenson Memorial Community Free Thanksgiving Dinner takes 10 months of planning and 150 volunteers to pull off at the Associated Veterans Club in Downtown Loveland. I've been inside that building, as have many. It seems like tight quarters for serving so many people, but it must work as they haven't moved it since it began.

Who Was Ann Jenson in Loveland, Colorado?

Ann Jenson, who passes away in 2014, spearheaded this Free Thanksgiving dinner in 2000 in association with the (existing at that time) Disabled American Veterans auxiliary. That first year saw about 50 people; 20+ years later, nearly 1,000 are served, either at the Associated Veterans Club or in their homes.

It costs about $7,500 to pull off the annual free dinner that's served 11:00 a.m.- 3:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day; they take donations from the public through a GoFundMe campaign. People can also donate physical items, such as the food items needed, and other supplies such as bags, spoons, duct tape etc. You can find out more about donating and voluteering here.