Hope Ministries to provide Thanksgiving meal

Hope Ministries in South Bend wants to make sure no one is left behind on Thanksgiving.

Volunteers began Thanksgiving meal preparations on Wednesday ahead of the big day.

About 60-70 turkeys were cooked on Wednesday then volunteers got back to work at 4 a.m. Thursday to carve the turkeys.

"The community pulls together when we have something like this. The guy who cooked the turkeys last night in the big roaster, yesterday was his birthday," said Hope Ministries Food Service Manager Calvin Chapman.

They had to work fast because at 7 a.m. more volunteers will arrive and they will pack Thanksgiving meal boxes and deliver them to some 500 Michiana residents.

"These meals go out mainly to people who live in retirement communities or they're home-bound or they don't have a family. We just feel they should have Thanksgiving too," Chapman added.
 
Hope Ministries will host a meal at noon for Hope residents. Also at that time, more than 200 non-residents are also expected to attend and take part in the meal. In all volunteers, expect to prepare around 850-900 meals for the whole day.

The group has provided free meals for St. Joseph County residents since it started back in 1954.

This year alone, they have served about 100,000 meals.

"This same group has been coming here for years. It's a lot of work but it's also a lot of enjoyment for us because we can give back to the community," he said.