There aren’t many Granges left. Auburn used to have five, and the Danville Grange is the last survivor. Members brag that their Grange is 140 years old.

While most of the Granges are gone, the public supper tradition is still strong in Maine, with many churches and organizations holding them to raise money and socialize.

Danville holds its bean supper the first Saturday of the month from September through May. The suppers start at 5 p.m. By 4:30 Saturday, the place was packed.

“They’re parking all the way to the turnpike,” one member mused as he came through the door.

Gladys Chapman kept an eye on the dining room, making sure everything ran smoothly.

“Hi there.” “Good evening.” “Come right in,” she and her husband, Maynard, said as they greeted people. “Everyone pitches in,” she said as another familiar face came through the door. “Well, he’s not in charge of anything,” she said, teasing the man.

After paying $7, people were assigned to tables with blue and white checkered tablecloths.

The buffet-style supper featured three kinds of beans – all from scratch — red kidney, yellow eye and pea. The spread also included coleslaw, carrots, sweet and sour hot dogs, meatballs, pickled beets, macaroni and cheese, chop suey, shepherd’s pie, potato casserole, corn casserole, clam casserole, brown bread and rolls.

And of course, pies: blueberry, pumpkin, coconut cream, lemon cream and chocolate cream.

Just about everyone gave the same answer as to why they come: The food is good, but the best part is seeing friends.

“People get to know each other, people who don’t see each other often,” said Gladys Chapman. “They come here and it’s like old-home week. It’s old-fashioned fun.”

“We’ve been coming here for years,” said Lucille Tetreault of Auburn. “It’s a way for us to catch up. You get to visit, she said, adding that the price is a bargain.

In the kitchen, a harried Shirley Hatch oversaw the operation, spooning beans into serving dishes, making sure casseroles were warm. In another five minutes the food would be brought out.

Franklin McCalister, another Grange member and volunteer, said his job is janitor; he keeps things in shape. He and his sister also donate food. He makes chocolate cream pie, she makes yellow eye beans using their father’s recipe.

“He used to make beans all the time for the suppers, even when he was 87,” McCalister said. Franklin lives in the house he grew up in across from the Grange. “We moved here in 1945.”

As he talked a man wearing suspenders came through the door. Asked why he came, the man quipped: “I belong here. I’m 86.”

“She wants your name,” McCalister said of the reporter. “I know. I ain’t givin’ it to her yet,” the man said with a grin. “It’s Kimball. Gordon Kimball of Gray.”

The two noticed how noisy the hall was. “They don’t have their mouths full yet,” Kimball said with a laugh.

The hall can hold 79 people at tables. Those who came late had to wait for the second seating.

Glenys Rider, a retired Auburn teacher whose grandson is an Auburn teacher, said she used to make so much of her triple macaroni and cheese she couldn’t lift the casserole pan. Today she makes coconut cream pie.

Because the food is mostly donated, the suppers give the Grange money to donate to charities, including the Salvation Army, dictionaries for students, money to the PAL Center, the American Heart Association and the Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice.

Their next supper is Oct. 3.