AUBURN — On the first Saturday of each month, close to 100 people would show up at the Grange hall in Danville village for bean suppers.

That stopped in March 2020 when COVID-19 hit.

“People miss coming to the bean suppers,” Gladys Chapman said.

The loss meant no money to help pay for repairs of the 123-year-old building.

The suppers would fill the hall floor with regulars, paying $7 each to help keep the Danville Junction Grange No. 65 open. The price went up to $8 and now to $9. “Some suppers are $10, but I’m not going to go to ten,” Chapman’s husband, Maynard, said.

Selling homemade chicken pies helped replace some of the funds, Maynard Chapman said. “They are not chicken pot pies because there are no vegetables,” he said. “Just chicken.”

“We sold 400 chicken pies to keep the Grange going,” he said.  “But, people miss their beans.”

“He got this idea to hold a bean takeout,” his wife said.

Grange members sliced apples Friday morning for an apple crisp. Others made casseroles from their home kitchens. The Chapmans baked bread and cooked the beans in the Grange hall kitchen.

All the takeout meals have been spoken for. Thirty-six orders were placed before the Thursday deadline. Four more came in Friday.

People who preordered will be able to drive up and pick up their bean suppers Saturday afternoon.

“This is our first takeout,” said Gladys, a retired school teacher. “I hope it goes well. People just have to be patient with us.”

“I figure we will give it a chance, see how it goes and try giving people their bean supper back,” she said.

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