Thanksgiving Dinner

Each year, volunteers from Holy Trinity and elsewhere get together to cook over 300 meals for elderly and homebound people in Yorkville. This is a parish-wide project that is challenging, rewarding, and much fun.

What the Thanksgiving program is about...

"And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces."
(Luke 9:16-17)

Holy Trinity's Thanksgiving dinner program, in partnership with St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, is our largest outreach feeding event of the year. With the help of The Carter Burden Center and Search and Care, two organizations who serve the elderly population of the Yorkville Neighborhood, we identify those of our neighbors who are homebound and in need at the holidays. This year, we will also be working with the Osborne Association, a group that runs a culinary program at Riker's Island to teach cooking skills to inmates.

Through the organized efforts of hundreds of volunteers from the St. Joseph's and Holy Trinity families, as well as from the neighborhood and all of New York City, we prepare over 300 meals, package them, and deliver them hot to our elderly homebound neighbors on Thanksgiving morning. Weeks of preparation go into this event, and then one full week of chopping, mixing, packaging and cooking 32 turkeys, pans of stuffing and hundreds of small containers of cranberry sauce, among many other tasks. Thanksgiving morning is a drill sergeant's dream of efficiency - hundreds of volunteers heating up and dishing out food, and then delivering them by foot, by car, and by subway.

Taking part in the Thanksgiving Dinner program is a great way to remember one's blessings and to give out of the abundance that we have received. It is also a wonderful way to meet one's neighbors and to experience first-hand the love, concern, and generosity of our local parishes, businesses (who generously donate money, food and supplies to this event), and the Yorkville community. Come and take part this year!

Here is how you can help:

• Your gift of $25.00 will provide a Thanksgiving meal for 4 people in our neighborhood, and help to provide hospitality for the volunteers who come from across the state and to deliver meals with us on Thanksgiving Day. Please make checks payable to Holy Trinity Neighborhood Center, and put "Thanksgiving Program" on the memo line.

• Share your time and your talent. On Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Thanksgiving week, we need volunteers to help clean the kitchen, cook, and pack meals. On Thursday morning, we finish packing the meals and we deliver them. Please contact the Thanksgiving Hotline, at 212-289-4100, ext. 225, or by e-mail at chtforthanksgiving@gmail.com.