The Sinclairville Volunteer Fire Department, 30 Main St., Sinclairville, will hold a drive-through chicken barbecue Sunday. It will begin at noon. Submitted photo

Jay Mease likes to give back to his community.

And he will be able to do that again Sunday as the Ellery Center Volunteer Fire Department will hold a drive-through chicken barbecue.

Mease said the drive-through begins at noon and will stop when all of the dinners are sold.

“I have my own sauce I make,” Mease said.

Mease, Ellery Center fire chief added that for $10 there will be chicken, potato salad, a roll and water, and donations also will be accepted.

The Sinclairville Volunteer Fire Department also will be holding a drive-through chicken barbecue on Sunday. It also starts at noon and will stop when the food is sold out.

At both buildings, the setup will be similar. Volunteers will serve one vehicle at a time. How it works is that a vehicle will get in line to get a dinner, and a volunteer will take the order at the first station, then the vehicle pull to a second station and receive the food. All volunteers will have on masks and gloves.

“We are taking some different steps that we would not normally take to space everyone out and to keep everybody reasonably safe. The order-taking process has to be spread out as well,” said Chris Roll, Sinclairville assistant fire chief.

“Sinclairville I know will be letting people drive right through the building. We will be bringing dinners only out to the car (vehicle) as it comes into the building, and then exiting that car out of the building, and then moving on to the next car,” Roll added.

Roll said many of the funds the Sinclairville VFD operates with are from weekly bingo fundraisers. “We simply can’t hold right now. We are trying to make up some lost ground with drive-through barbecue. The social-distancing which is absolutely necessary has been very challenging to all our fundraising efforts which usually involves a group of people in some fashion. We really had to think outside the box. We’re hoping to attract the public’s attention here,” Roll said.

Roll said the department is making 275 dinners, and for $10 patrons will receive chicken, scalloped potatoes, apple sauce, and pickles. “We have our own secret recipe. We barbecue it all ourselves with our own barbecue sauce,” Roll said. He added that drivers should wear masks.

Mease said he donated all of the food for Ellery’s drive-through, and 100% of the proceeds will be split among five area charities:

¯ Panama United Methodist Church — food pantry, 22 E. Main St., Panama

¯ Park United Methodist Church – food pantry, 49 Sinclair Drive, Sinclairville

¯ St. Susan Center, 31 Water St., Jamestown.

¯ UCAN City Mission, 7 W. First St., Jamestown

¯ Salvation Army, 83 S. Main St., Jamestown

“One hundred percent of the cost is donated by me, and 100% of the proceeds will be donated to these charities. I’m blessed that I’m retired, and I don’t have worry about losing my job or being laid off,” Mease said.

He said he wants to help those people who are having difficulties with trying to file for unemployment. He is also making two birdhouses, and one is a three-tiered birdhouse planter. The birdhouses will be given away and tickets will be available at the drive-through, Mease said.

“It’s my way of giving back to the community,” Mease said. “I am pretty good at cooking chicken — even better then Sinclairville (VFD). His secret sauce is not as good as ours.” Mease said that another drive-through barbecue will be held on May 24.

Sinclairville VFD is located at 30 Main St., Sinclairville. Ellery Center VFD is located at 4400 Dutch Hollow Road, Bemus Point.