Three hundred pounds of turkey, 100 pounds of potatoes and a cornucopia of dressings and desserts could have satisfied all of the pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth.
And it will keep about 500 of Gainesville’s homeless people from going hungry Thursday, when the St. Francis House welcomes them for a Thanksgiving feast.
Although the majority of the food has already been donated, the shelter and soup kitchen still needs food donations to cater the holiday meal for those who would be unable to celebrate otherwise.
“It’s pretty humbling to sit here and see the things that many of us will take for granted are what a lot of these folks depend on,” said Lee Smith, the director of operations at the St. Francis House. “You count your blessings. We want to see that nobody goes without something,”
Alexandra Dati, a sophomore nutrition student at UF, volunteered at St. Francis House five or six hours per week last fall and said she was moved by the experience.
“If people have the means to have a huge feast for themselves, at least give back so that somebody else can have one, too,” she said.
According to Kent Vann, the executive director of St. Francis House, preparing the feast in the soup kitchen resembles an assembly line more than it does Mom’s kitchen.
Feeding 500 people involves about 200 volunteers from United Way and the Gainesville community. They start coming in Thanksgiving Day at 7 a.m. and cook for three hours.
There is a separate cooking station for every Thanksgiving favorite. At one station, volunteers baste, bake and carve the turkey. Another group assembles the stuffing and the next presides over a vat of mashed potatoes. Some volunteers donate homemade cookies, and pecan, pumpkin and sweet potato pies.
“We get the greatest response about the layout of the entire meal. We like to do the traditional meal, and it looks and tastes good. But it takes every bit of help for it to come together,” Vann said.
