Inaugural holiday calorie-burner spawns community meal

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The idea seemed simple enough. Faced with the prospect of a nearly unavoidable 5,000-calorie plate of holiday goodness, some Central Iowans decided to organize a holiday run, the Downtown Des Moines Turkey Trot. It couldn’t hurt to burn off a bit before the big feast, right? Routes covering 5 miles and 5 kilometers were drawn.


Then race director Michael Zimmerman and others thought about the meaning of Thanksgiving beyond the turkey, dressing and cranberry sauce. The next thing they knew, they had arranged for a community meal downtown.


“We knew immediately that we wanted to make this a communal event and to give something back to the neighborhood and the residents of downtown, and the concept of the community meal was born.” Zimmerman said in a news release.


Tom Zmolek, president of The Historic Court District, helped arrange the meal, which will be offered from 11:30 to 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the corner of Fourth Street and Court Avenue. The runners, who were given the chance to donate money for the meal, will be able to have a post-race pancake breakfast with anyone else looking for a warm meal that morning.


“We would like this community meal to bring together all the members of our community to break bread in a large community setting and embrace the diversity of downtown and the great city of Des Moines,” Zmolek said. Chris Cakes Inc. will prepare the pancakes.