In the Canyon, they’re cooking memorable (free) meals

It’s a Thursday afternoon at the Canyon Elementary School and Louann Mohn, Flo Williams and several other women are cutting up 60 pounds of roasted potatoes for potato salad.

In the kitchen, Nancy Flint and Patti Holm are cutting grapes in half as part of a fruit salad and outside Lemo Segi and his help are roasting a whole pig, while they also cook chicken thighs and legs in a soy-orange marinade with garlic, ginger and other spices.

Welcome to the Canyon Community Dinner, held the last Thursday of every month completely free for all Canyon area residents who could use a good, home-cooked meal.

The idea was started by Vera Smith in 2014 and Mohn took over the organizational effort on 2016 after Smith’s husband fell ill.

She’s been doing it ever since.

“Someone needed to do it, so I did,” Mohn said. “We have three teams that cook for us.”

The meals are financed completely by private donations, with the support of three Columbia Falls churches — All Saints Episcopal Church, Our Savior’s Lutheran Church and the Columbia Falls United Methodist Church.

Last year, they served about 1,300 meals, at a cost of $3.40 a meal. It takes about a dozen or so volunteers to put on the meal each month and the churches rotate through the duties.

The food comes from all sorts of sources, even Mohn’s backyard. She has four apple trees and the one tree is already starting to drop apples that can be used for apple sauce or in desserts.

This meal is a special one. July Street, a longtime volunteer, suggested they have a Luau. Street is a native of Somoa, but has lived in the Canyon for more than 20 years.

So they decided to do the whole she-bang — her brother, Segi, came from Seattle to roast the pig and they had live music and even belly dancers.

The meal was fabulous, with the pig and the chicken and baked beans and potato salad and fruit salad and even, dessert.

The skin on the pig was crispy and the juice flowed from the meat.

At a restaurant, this is a $30 meal.

“We’re darn good cooks,” Mohn said.

Everyone was smiling and the line was long. They were expecting 150 people, because of the Luau, but even on a regular month, they’re seeing 110-155 people.

The crowds used to be smaller, but after being shut down by the pandemic for 18 months, the deamnd has come back stronger.

Rents are up as well as other expenses.

“I don’t think people have enough money to live up here,” she said.

Folks don’t have to sit down and eat, they do takeout and if someone needs a little extra for the next day, they give it to them. Leftovers, if there are any, go the Columbia Falls Senior Center.

The donations come from all over. The Canyon Christmas Fund, part of Cabin Fever Days, funded a new stove and the annual church Crop Walk for hunger also helps.

Mohn enjoys cooking for folks and comes form a family that likes to cook.

“My mom (Betty Lou Larson) used to do recipes on KGEZ radio when I was a kid,” she said.

Larson was an influencer before that was a term and companies were send her kitchen items and other things to use in her cooking and serving, in exchange for mentioning their products.

“She didn’t have a vlog,” Mohn laughed.

Mohn’s grandfather owned the Palm Cafe in Kalispell. She’s fifth generation. Her great-grandfather came off the train in the early 1900s with a bad case of appendicitis. He recovered and never left.

She and her late husband Ron had a Whitefish business for years in the valley, where they sold lake whitefish and their caviar. But the river shifted, which made it harder to get a jet boat into the good holes and then Ron passed away so she sold the equipment.

The Thursday dinners have grown to be a community event. It’s more than just excellent food.

“I think people get hooked on being here and what we do,” Mohn said.