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SERVE dishes up Thanksgiving dinner
Families around the nation sit down today to count their blessings and share in a Thanksgiving feast. For many, the food on the table was hard to come by.SERVE -- Securing Emergency Resources through Volunteer Efforts -- provided Thanksgiving meals to approximately 1,200 families in western Prince William this year.
Some of those who received meals are homeless but others are simply unemployed and many are working but just unable to make ends meet amid rising costs and falling wages.
The downturn in the economy has sent even more families to SERVE this year said volunteer coordinator Jan Hawkins. Last year, almost 1,000 families asked for free Thanksgiving dinners. This year, she expected the number to be closer to 1,200.
The dinners are provided by residents, organizations and businesses who donate food, money and time. For months, scouting and church groups and local business owners have been organizing canned food drives in anticipation of the annual Operation Turkey project.
Once the food started pouring in, volunteers began working feverishly to organize it. It was a huge undertaking: the gymnasium at Manassas Adventist Preparatory School was packed full of canned and boxed goods. Volunteers have been meeting for weeks to receive donations and to sort the food and pack it into bags.
The school serves as a staging area for the packing and distribution of food each year and in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, work there continued at a fevered pitch.
Earlier this week, families started arriving to pick up their dinners. Each received a bag of groceries complete with all of the fixings for a Thanksgiving dinner: vegetables, stuffing mix, dessert and a voucher for a turkey or other meat at a local grocery store.
By the time Thanksgiving dawned, it was all over for SERVE's holiday volunteers. But the needs of the community don't end with the holiday weekend.
SERVE provides food and shelter to western Prince William families year-round and donations are always needed.
Checks can be made to SERVE and mailed to SERVE Inc., 10056 Dean Drive, Manassas, VA 20110.
Food can be dropped off at the same location from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
For more information about SERVE, visit www.serveinc.org or call 703-368-2979.
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