Shriners to hold annual chicken plate sale

The Neshoba County Shrine Club is cooking up chicken for a good cause as part of their annual barbecue chicken plate sale on Saturday, Nov. 7. 

Funds raised go toward transporting kids to different Shriners Hospitals all across the country, according to Grover Vining, the past president of the club and the current secretary of the board of governors for Shreveport Shriners Hospitals for Children.

“The local Shrine Club reimburses families for gas, hotel rooms, meals, and in some cases, furnish rental cars and drivers,” Vining said. “While most of our children are treated at the Shreveport Hospital, we want to make sure they have other options.” 

Some hospital locations include Galveston, Houston, St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, Greenville, South Carolina and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,

The event be taking place in the Vowell’s / Dirt Cheap parking lot on Pecan Avenue from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

The Shriners are requesting that customers drive up to the serving tents to place their orders, and the pre-made bags and plates will be placed in their vehicles. Plates are $8 each. If you bought tickets earlier and can not find them, please contact Grover Vining at 601-416-6667.

Vining joined the Neshoba County Shrine Club in early 2006 after his retirement in 2005. 

“I didn’t know all the details, but being part of this club is definitely something that I wanted to do for the community,” he said. “We want to make sure children can get to the hospitals when they need to.”

Vining said the Shriners have not only been a team in Neshoba since the early 1960s, but have also been known worldwide for the past 100 years. He said the chicken plate sale is probably one the longest running continuous fundraisers in the county, being around since the late 1970s when the loan for the current Shrine Club building was paid off. 

“In celebration, they held a large gathering at the building and burned a giant chicken made of paper products,” he said. “The loan paperwork was ceremoniously placed in that paper chicken for what they called the ‘Burning of the Note.’”

Vining noted that there are only a few Shriners left in the club that remember the original chicken sales, and they were afraid the annual tradition would end this year due to COVID-19. 

“Pandemic restrictions caused us to postpone the sale to November, since it’s usually held during the first Saturday in April,” he said. “Although things will be different, we’re making sure to keep the tradition and make sure it happens.”

Vining added that preparation for the sale begins weeks in advance, with work activities beginning on Friday, the day before the sale itself. Over 1,700 chicken halves, which come from a Tyson chicken plant in Forrest County, are picked up and then unloaded at the Shrine Club building. The cooking pits are cleaned out, along with 60 large cooking racks. 

“The last thing we do on Friday afternoon is prepare around 300 pounds of cole slaw with a secret recipe that dates back to the mid 60s,” Vining said. “Around 2:00 a.m. on Saturday, we begin prepping the chicken, we cook around 90 gallons of beans, and start preparing everything for the trip to town.”

Vining said it’s a lot of hard work in a small 36 hour window, but the effort is well worth it for the members of the club. 

“This is typically the largest fundraiser for the club and our funds go toward supporting the cost of maintaining the club and for helping the children,” he said. 

Jarvis Winstead, treasurer of the Neshoba County Shrine Club, has been with the club since the early 1980s and said getting the chance to help children in need is the best part of being a member. He said that due to the pandemic, the plate sale is the first cooking they’ve done since January when they cooked for Neshoba Central athletes.

“These kids wouldn’t be able to get the proper help they need if not for the Shriners,” Winstead said. “That’s what we’re all about. Helping the kids and making sure their parents can afford to give their kids the proper things they need.” 

Winstead said this year’s chicken plate sale will be a little different compared to previous years, but he’s happy that they’re still able to do it while properly following COVID-19 guidelines. 

“We weren’t sure if we’d have to cancel this year, but we ended up working out a way to do it safely,” he said. “We plan to keep the tradition going as long as possible. We’ll be wearing rubber gloves and masks when giving out the food to ensure everyone’s safety.”

The Secretary of the Shrine Club, Dennis Dontrich, joined the club since he was retired and wanted to find something to do. He settled on helping out children. He formerly lived in Missouri before coming to Mississippi after retirement. 

“I joined the club back in 2004, and seeing the Shrine Club help out kids with disabilities inspired me to join,” Dontrich said. “It’s such a good organization that’s so focused on helping children in need.”

Dontrich said his best experiences in the club have been helping with projects and seeing other Shrine members always volunteering to help whenever they can. 

“The members love helping, and they don’t mind it at all,” he said. “We normally do around 10 cookings a year, but we had to cut down on that due to COVID. We usually cook for places like Citizen’s Bank, Mississippi Department of Transportation in Newton, and athletic departments for different schools such as Neshoba Central.”

Dontrich said he’s very happy the chicken plate sale is still on and the club plans to make sure people in Neshoba know the sale will still be happening this year. 

“We’ll be spending the next week or so calling people and businesses letting them know the sale is still on,” he said.