After 3 decades the idea of helping needy families on Thanksgiving Day which was initially started by two young adults, has grown by leaps and bounds. Yesterday my husband and I did our small part to help deliver 15,000 dinners in the Twin Cities. Yes, you read right...15,000 dinners. Each year local merchants and sponsors generously donate food, trucks, money and time to make all this happen with the help of volunteers who gather at a local high school, Cretin-Derham Hall, where the action begins early each Thanksgiving morning. Students, young and old adults arrive at 4 am to pack the dinner boxes and coordinate the effort. Drivers arrive at 7 am and wait in long lines to gather in the gymnasium and halls, receive a number, eventually get the three addresses for delivery, return to cars and again wait in one of three long lines to pick up the food boxes that are taken to the cars by more volunteers...frequently students of local parochial schools. Volunteer policemen and women help direct the traffic at several street corners near the school. We delivered a dinner for four to a disabled adult living in a high rise, an Hispanic couple received two boxes of food for 12 people, and we delivered a dinner for 10 to a black family. We arrived home at 10:30 am to begin our own holiday.The top row of the collage shows some of the tables that were set up outside, holding all the food. The middle row, with my favorite driver in the middle, shows the long line of cars ready to deliver the goods, and you can see the many drivers waiting in the gym to begin the deliveries in the bottom row. Notice the young students on the bottom right who used dollys to help carry the food to the cars that were waiting in line. Although waiting in all those lines was a bit tiring, everyone was convivial. Overall, it gave the day a special significance for all of us. We had a GREAT Thanksgiving!!
