Emporia Legion members vote to keep food service — at least for now
By Bobbi Mlynar (Contact)
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Full food service will continue at the American Legion Post 5, 2921 W. 12th Ave., at least until January, according to Post Commander John Sanderson.
Sanderson said there had been some confusion about votes taken recently regarding whether to continue preparing and serving food on-site.
“We will not change any of the post food-service operation before the 21st of January, unless the board authorizes it, and I don’t think the board’s going to change its position. I wouldn’t expect that,” Sanderson said.
In addition to serving full meals and grill-type meals to members and their guests, as well as to players on Bingo nights, the Legion also currently provides meals regularly for other clubs and other organizations, such as Kiwanis Club, the Emporia Retired Teachers Association, and Lyon County CrimeStoppers.
The post and its food service also are used frequently for wedding receptions, charitable auctions, and other social events.
The executive board had voted 6-2 on Sept. 15 to end food service in two increments. The Sunday buffet, Monday and Thursday Bingo snacks, Family Night on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday night menu dinners, and service club meals all were to have ended on Oct. 31.
Holiday parties, receptions and banquets already booked would be served through December. Then, beginning in January 2009, the second increment of the vote would be implemented, and food would be catered in.
A vote by the general membership on Sept. 23, however, set aside the executive board’s action and postponed the decision until the executive board meeting on Jan. 21.
“It’s kind of like a stay of sentence,” Sanderson said.
The executive board again will vote how to handle food service at the Legion.
The food service problem is a financial one, he explained. Funds have been transferred out of Bingo reserves to pay for shortfalls that come, in part, from food service.
“Over the last four or five years, we actually have been draining our reserves down in order to meet expenses,” Sanderson said. “So the board voted just to cut down on food service.”
Deferring the vote on the subject until January will give the executive board and managers time to consider what other options might be available.
“One of the things that the board wanted us to do was to develop a new plan for food service, and we’re in the process of doing that right now,” Sanderson said. Business manager Nona Thomas is working on possible solutions for the board to consider.
Legion leaders already have tried several special events to draw members and their guests to the Post to eat.
“We’ve tried a number of things,” he said.
Participation, however, has not been at the level needed to bring in enough participants to move food service closer to being self-supporting.
Sanderson talked about a letter sent to the Post by a member, who talked about the early 1970s, when the Legion was located in West 12th Avenue in the building that now houses the Emporia State Federal Credit Union.
Emporia was different in those days. The Santa Fe Railroad employed hundreds of people, Dolly Madison and IBP production lines were running full-tilt, and “school programs and team sports were not so demanding of parents,” the writer said. “In those days, people tended to socialize face-to-face. ... It’s hard to get people out nowadays and our members are people.”
Sanderson agreed.
“Just reading this thing, that’s pretty much a correct, accurate statement,” he said.
That Post closed because of financial difficulties and, after a few years in a building on the old College of Emporia campus, Post 5 encountered additional financial difficulties, with expenses exceeding income.
The Legion is in a better financial position at its current location, he said.
“To be sure, the post is not bankrupt,” Sanderson wrote in the Emporia Legionnaire newsletter this month. “Our building, fixtures and personal property are owned outright. ... The next 90 days will be critical to Post 5’s financial well being.
“This problem would not exist if there was more income from members and their guests patronizing functions held at the Post.”
Sanderson remains optimistic that the red ink can be erased from the food service books, with some planning, participation, and effort from Legion leaders and the general membership.
“I think we can do it,” he said. “I’m not giving up on this at all.”
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