HOLLAND, MI (WHTC) – So what goes into planning a Thanksgiving meal to over 1300 guests? Volunteer Event Coordinator Anna Southwell of the Holland Rescue Mission says they start planning for The Great Thanksgiving Banquet in July.
Over 140 turkeys, 700 pounds of potatoes, 50 gallons of gravy and 250 desserts was served to over 1300 guests in the community at the Holland Rescue Mission’s Great Thanksgiving Banquet Wednesday evening.
The crowd was greeted by Holland Mayor Nancy DeBoer and the Mission’s Executive Director Darryl Bartlett.
Bartlett whose been with the Mission for 24 years, says this is about bringing people who would not normally intersect eachother’s lives through the normal course of their days, weeks and months.
“There are business owners sitting across the table from someone they are not going to meet at the country club. Tonight we have created an intersection where the ground really is level. They are enjoying a meal together. Conversation together and getting to know someone that they would not get to know otherwise. And I know what this does in the heart of a volunteer. It sparks a sensitivity that they might not have had otherwise.” Bartlett said the community responded so much that they had to shut off the volunteerism as they would have had twice as many volunteers needed for the banquet.
Mayor Nancy Deboer teared up and said it fills your heart so much. ” It touches your heart so deeply. It’s really what you want your community to be. This feels like the heart of the community and this is really what it’s all about.”
500 families attend every year. Anna Southwell of the Mission says these are low income families. Families who cannot even provide a large Thanksgiving meal for their family. Sometimes they just don’t have friends or family to share the holiday with.
At the end of the evening, each household receives a care box filled with personal and household items. Each box is filled with about 20 different items. Things that one cannot purchase with a bridge card.
Schools, churches and other organizations decorate the boxes in a holiday theme and families each leave with one box after the banquet.
