Communities serve Thanksgiving meals 'with love,' fellowship

Westmoreland County residents who might otherwise spend the fourth Thursday in November alone or with a sparse menu can find a place at a communal table or a friendly knock at their door, thanks to volunteers who focus on the “giving” part of Thanksgiving Day.

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Latrobe is among several area churches that play host to free Thanksgiving meals for their communities.

Since Trinity’s Fellowship Hall can hold no more than 120 diners, those who wanted to partake in this year’s 39th annual meal were asked to reserve a ticket. As of Wednesday morning, the church office had issued 117 tickets.

About 35 volunteers have been at work to make sure the meal is ready for guests.

Mary Ann Coulston of Unity is in charge of the church’s kitchen crew, including potato peelers and turkey preppers, who arrived Wednesday morning.

“My husband and I come in at 2 a.m. (Thursday) and put the turkeys in the oven,” Coulston said, while others pitch in at 7:30 a.m. “The whole dinner is cooked with love here in our kitchen,” she said, including the pumpkin cake.

Seven turkeys and three breasts were donated by church members or other benefactors, rolls were provided by a local bakery, and the potatoes came from Coulston’s garden. “We welcome all the help we can get,” she said, noting a family that attends another Lutheran church prepared appetizers.

Senior apartment dwellers are among those who are typically served. “The whole idea is to be together and not be at home alone for Thanksgiving,” said Coulston, who has helped with the meal for about a decade.

Volunteers who prepare a free community Thanksgiving dinner at Greensburg’s Otterbein United Methodist Church expect to serve more than 300 people this year, between those who have reserved the 150 seats available and others who have signed up to take out a meal or have one delivered.

Greensburg’s Tina Blake, who took over organization of the annual meal about eight years ago, said it has been “getting bigger every year. The community need is bigger every year.”

Blake brings catering experience to the task and uses a spreadsheet to track the hundreds of volunteers and the many ingredients, including 25 turkeys and 160 pounds of potatoes. She adds her own special touch by preparing homemade cranberry sauce.

“It’s a big community thing,” she said, noting local restaurants have offered help, as well as people from various faiths. “Everyone is so generous and giving. Some of them I have never met before, but they call and want to do something. All of the food gets donated.”

Guided by their parents, 31 youths enrolled in confirmation and Sunday school classes at Harrold Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hempfield each baked two dozen rolls for the Otterbein meal. Judges at Harrold Zion taste-tested the rolls and awarded top honors to three junior bakers.

“The kids had fun with it,” Pastor John Smaligo said. At the same time, “They saw they were living out their faith. The real winner is the community.”

“It’s really rewarding,” Blake said of the volunteer effort behind the meal. “We always feel, when we’re done, that we are the ones who have been blessed by this.”

Delmont Presbyterian Church has seen attendance at its free Thanksgiving Day meal grow from about 30 last year to more than 40 who signed up for this year’s third-annual event, set for 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“More people can still show up,” Pastor Caroline Vickery said, noting about 20 more could be comfortably accommodated.

“A lot of people doing their part makes it happen,” Vickery said. That includes 30 people who are donating food, 18 who volunteered to help at the church and a team of five who are coordinating the event.

Church members initiated the meal because “we wanted to make a difference in the community,” Vickery said, explaining the dinner fills at least two basic needs: “There’s physical hunger and also the hunger for a connection with other people.”

Many volunteers make plans to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families at another time. “Some just like the idea of paying forward,” Vickery said.

Bonita Sisak and her family will share their holiday with close to 200 local residents they expect to attend the free Thanksgiving dinner they’ve served for about two decades at Saint Vincent Grove in Unity.

“We do it because we know there are people who are alone,” said Sisak, who relies on about 20 volunteers to make the event happen. “We have a lot of widows and widowers and people who have never been married, and we do have some families that come.

“We try to not just have the dinner and send people home.”

A local disc jockey volunteers to play music. Guests are encouraged to sing along before leaving with an individual gift.

“A lot have said they don’t have family and we’re their family,” Sisak said. “They just can’t thank us enough.”