Siskiyou County residents came together on Wednesday afternoon during opening day of the Siskiyou Golden Fair to continue a longstanding annual tradition: Providing free lunch for the fair’s carnival workers.

Siskiyou County residents came together on Wednesday afternoon during opening day of the Siskiyou Golden Fair to continue a longstanding annual tradition: Providing free lunch for the fair’s carnival workers.

The idea for the lunch originated about 20 years ago with Jill Yaconelli, whose father, Mike Yaconelli, was the founding pastor of Grace Community Church, which shut down last year.

Jill recounted that the inspiration for the lunch came to her when she was 16 years old, after listening to one of her father’s sermons, during which he encouraged people to perform random acts of kindness.

Jill remembers that her father made mention of how terribly people often treat the fair’s carnival workers. She then approached her dad and proposed that they organize a barbecue for the workers.

“Our church was so amazing that it didn’t take much to get people motivated,” Jill said. She described, “Within no time, we had a list with potluck salads, a variety of meat, and volunteers to trade off barbecueing.”

Though the carnival workers did not initially know what to make of a community feeding them free of charge, Jill stated, soon “the picnic tables were packed and conversations were flowing.”

Since the lunch’s inception, there have been several years when it looked like the event might not happen, Jill noted. But so far every year someone has stepped up and taken the reigns to keep the tradition alive. Jill credited Marilyn Seward and Mary Pearl in particular with organizing the effort.

The beer garden area of the Siskiyou Golden Fair was packed with people enjoying the lunch on Wednesday. The tables were packed with food, much of which was homemade, and about 20 volunteers from the community were on hand to dish out the meal to appreciative workers before they began their shifts. The lunch is unique to Siskiyou County and serves as a great reminder of local citizens’ knack for teamwork and hospitality.