EDMONDS — It was a longer shopping list than most people had for Thanksgiving.
Sixty pounds of cranberry sauce, 371 pounds of canned yams, 275 pounds of frozen corn, 20 gallons of apple juice, 200 pounds of instant mashed potatoes and more than 1,600 dinner rolls. And that was just the start.
Volunteers began preparing nearly 100 turkeys the weekend before Thanksgiving Day and work continued up to the meal. Mashed potatoes were mixed in a bowl big enough to sit in and the pumpkin pies were sliced and set, piece by piece, on hundreds of little white plates.
It takes a lot of food, work and love to feed 1,300 people for Thanksgiving dinner.
Free community dinners, open to anyone who needs a place to go for the holiday, have been a tradition at Westgate Chapel on Edmonds Way for 21 years. About 550 volunteers helped this year and members of the 1,200-person congregation started donating supplies and money in October.
Volunteers acted as the greeters, servers, cooks and hosts at three family-style turkey dinners. They seated people at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. The three meals gave them enough time and space to feed everyone. A line of guests formed outside the door an hour before the first meal.
When the free dinners started in 1994, there were more volunteers than guests, said Ron Brooks, a longtime pastor at the church. The event has gotten bigger every year.
This year, one of Brooks’ goals was to make the experience more inclusive. Welcome messages, programs and a sheet with lyrics to a short song were written in four languages: English, Spanish, Russian and Korean.
“It’s a real mix. We have a lot of children who come, a lot of young families, a lot from various ethnic backgrounds, a lot of homeless find their way to us,” Brooks said. “That’s what we’re really after is people who are alone on Thanksgiving, people who are immigrants or can’t get home to family or are otherwise disenfranchised.”
Volunteer drivers picked guests up at local park-and-rides and delivered meals to people who couldn’t get to the church. They didn’t want anyone to be left out.
The church offered free family photos, prayer counseling, childcare and a food and clothing bank where guests could fill bags to take home.
“We’re giving up our Thanksgiving Day, but no one feels like they’re sacrificing anything. We love to do this,” Brooks said. “We all go home tired. We’re exhausted. But we all go home with hearts full of thanksgiving to the Lord. It’s a wonderful feeling.”
John Jacob works as a chef at the church and volunteered extra time for the Thanksgiving preparations. He focused on getting the turkeys cooked, sliced and stored all week so the meat could be reheated and served at the big meal. He’s been volunteering for about 10 years. The dinners are a great opportunity for people who don’t have any place to go or can’t afford a big meal at home, he said.
Fellow volunteer Annette Harb has seen families come back year after year. That’s her favorite part.
“This is their Thanksgiving highlight,” she said. “It’s wonderful to bring families together in this crazy world.”
For two volunteers in the dining room, cleaning their way through 44 circular tables, volunteering at the dinner is a family tradition that brings them together.
Wendy Carroll, 56, and daughter Devon Carroll, 26, started helping out at the annual event more than a decade ago.
“It just completely sets us up for the entire holiday season with the right mindset,” Wendy Carroll said. “We’d never want to miss it. It helps get you refocused on the right things and away from all the shopping. It gets you focused on people, not stuff.”
Devon Carroll is a kindergarten teacher and her favorite part of volunteering is handing out crayons to the kids and making sure they have a good time.
“There’s not really any other way I’d want to spend Thanksgiving,” she said.
Victor Decasso, of Lynnwood, brought his sister, nephew and three kids to the dinner. The oldest child was 9, the youngest, 5. They passed bread rolls to each other and served mashed potatoes and stuffing onto each others’ plates.
A friend recommended the dinner to Decasso, whose wife had to work Thanksgiving. He planned to take his kids to go see friends after the meal.
He was impressed by the food and the generosity at Westgate Chapel.
“I like it here,” he said. “It’s very friendly.”
Senior Pastor Alec Rowlands led a prayer to bless the food. Before eating, the group of pastors, volunteers and guests sang a short, simple song to set the tone for the meal.
It started like this: “Give thanks with grateful hearts.”
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
