Community groups offer Thanksgiving meals
Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
Melissa Holt, left, a resident of City Mission’s Avis Arbor women’s shelter, and volunteer Maloney Nicole Partee work in the mission’s kitchen Thursday afternoon.
Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
Volunteer Pat Sabo of Charleroi serves food during St. Damien of Molokai Parish’s free Thanksgiving dinner Thursday.
Volunteer Maloney Nicole Partee prepares servings of pie Thursday afternoon for a Thanksgiving dinner City Mission was planning later in the day.
Small clusters of diners sat at rows of tables in the former St. Anthony School in Monongahela late Thursday morning.
“A lot of these people walked in here by themselves, and they’re sitting there talking to each other and enjoying the holiday,” said Deacon Al Poroda.
Poroda helped coordinate St. Damien of Molokai Parish’s free Thanksgiving dinner, held in Father Abbate Hall on Park Avenue. The parish’s communal meal is one of many offered by community groups in the area for those who might not get one otherwise.
“They don’t have to be needy,” Poroda said. “If they’re lonely …We invite the whole community.”
Poroda expected church volunteers – including some from Mary, Mother of the Church in Charleroi – to serve or deliver about 350 meals in total. Volunteers also brought food to the local police and ambulance service; the Mon Valley Hospital emergency room; and employees of local businesses who were working on the holiday.
St. Anthony began offering free Thanksgiving dinners in 1998. The tradition has continued after the parish merged with Transfiguration Parish to form St. Damien.
At one of the hall’s tables, Greg Hancher of Finleyville sat with his girlfriend, Joyce Vitale.
“This is the first year we didn’t cook,” Hancher said.
Hancher said the couple’s oven was broken, and they wanted a meal early in the day before they went to his girlfriend’s sister’s for dinner.
In downtown Washington, City Mission declared “Seven Days of Thanksgiving.” The Christian organization, which provides housing and other services for the homeless, is holding free, family-style lunches and dinners every day from the Saturday before Thanksgiving until the following Saturday.
Brian Johansson, mission chief operating officer, projected volunteers would serve about 2,500 to 3,000 meals throughout the eight-day “week.”
A total of 450 people signed up online to help out. Staff tried to model on family dinners, with volunteers bringing dishes to be passed around the table.
“Often when you serve so many meals, it’s institutional,” Johansson said.
Melissa Holt, a resident of the mission’s Avis Arbor women’s shelter, agreed. That afternoon, she was in the mission’s kitchen helping to prepare dinner planned for the evening.
“I think they love the part of being waited on, instead of standing in line,” Holt said. “It’s more of a personal touch.”
Organizers of the Canonsburg-Houston Ministerial Association’s 34th free Thanksgiving dinner applied a similar principle. In the fellowship hall of Canonsburg United Presbyterian Church on West Pike Avenue, diners ate a traditional Thanksgiving dinner on china plates at small round tables. Like their counterparts at St. Damien, volunteers also made meal deliveries and offered to-go trays.
“Last year, we did 410 (meals), and we feel like we’re going to be right around that this year so far,” said Lynlee Caliguiri, one of the event’s coordinators.
She said diners often insist on making donations.
“We have many people who hand you some change or dollar bills,” Caliguiri said. “We tell them, ‘It’s not necessary.’ But a lot of them say, ‘No, I want to give something.'”