DeKalb residents facing a lonely Thanksgiving can drop in for a free dinner and enjoy holiday companionship.

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship is sponsoring a free potluck dinner Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Wesley Foundation, 633 W. Locust St.

“There are people right in our midst who are less fortunate and don’t have what we have,” Coordinator Jonathan Reich said. Students from other states or countries who cannot go home are welcome, as well as “people, who for one reason or another, feel lonesome and have nowhere to go,” he said.

The community dinner is an opportunity to “give thanks together and be with friendly people,” Reich said. Although the event is a potluck dinner, bringing food is not required, he said.

Reich organized the spur-of-the-moment event Sunday providing dinner and companionship for those students and residents left after the NIU Thanksgiving break, which begins at noon Wednesday and lasts through Sunday. NIU residence halls close at 4 p.m. Wednesday and reopen at 2 p.m. Sunday.

People are invited to come at 5 p.m., and dinner will be served at 6 p.m. Video tapes of old movies will be shown at 7:30 p.m. at the foundation.

No reservations are necessary to attend the dinner. For more information, call Reich at 758-6737.