You're likely familiar with Mr. Thanksgiving.

For over 50 years, Bob Vogelbaugh (better known as Mr. Thanksgiving around the Quad Cities) has been hosting a free community dinner for locals. Guideposts has even talked about his generosity.

The Thanksgiving Day meal giveaway has been hosted at Southpark Mall in Moline. Hy-Vee has provided the food for the past years, costing about $9,000 for the meals. That includes turkey, salad, rolls, and side dishes.

The Tradition Ends

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According to WQAD, this year it isn't looking like Mr. Thanksgiving's annual feast is going to happen.

The general manager of SouthPark Mall told the outlet he couldn't get in contact with Vogelbaugh and he missed a mid-October planning meeting. Hy-Vee also hasn't heard from Vogelbaugh about getting food for this year's dinner. Vogelbaugh said:

Maybe it’s time that I did step down, you know. It’s sad and it hurts, but there does come a time in the life...It's just really sad because a lot of people depend on this Thanksgiving dinner year after year, and for them not to be able to get a dinner — it's heartbreaking. I'm wishing everybody an early happy Thanksgiving. And I will always be the turkey of the Quad Cities, nobody's going to take that title for sure

He'll always be our Mr. Thanksgiving!

Unfortunately, Vogelbaugh said that there aren't currently plans to have anyone take over that community dinner. This would have been the 55th year for it.

There are other free Thanksgiving meals in the QCA, including the MLK Center in Rock Island and the Lincoln Center in Davenport. Churches often do community Thanksgiving meals too.

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