A Godsend: A Thanksgiving Feast for the Hungry in Manchester

By Ellen Grimm on Wednesday, November 25, 2009.

The U.S. Agriculture Dept. reports this month that 2008 saw the highest levels of hunger in the country since it began its surveys in 1995.

About 49 million Americans experience what’s called food insecurity, the technical term for not knowing where the next meal is coming from.

But on Wednesdays, dozens of people know that they can get a meal at a downtown park in Manchester.

And today they got more than a meal....they sat down to a Thanksgiving feast.

NHPR Correspondent Ellen Grimm reports.

SOUNDS of Setting up:

Dave Duranty has been working the lunch shift for several years.

MORE SOUNDS:

Duranty and volunteers serve lunch for the hungry every Wednesday in Manchester's Victory park which sits surrounded by several stately downtown buildings.

DURANTY: Today we're serving a full Thanksgiving meal in the park -- complete. Soup to nuts: the turkey, the stuffing, squash, the potatoes, pies, the whole works.

About six long tables held all the fixings. 200 pounds of potatoes. 100 pounds of squash. 200 servings of peas. A steaming pot of turkey.

DURANTY: ..Everyone here is just someone in need of basic human needs, like love, food, and being recognized as people with dignity, with feelings, with compassion, and whatever. Here, nobody has addictions, nobody has alcholism, nobody has mental illness, nobody has any special needs that separate them. Here we're one community.

Norm Albert says he's been coming to the park for lunch nearly every Wednesday for about two years.

He's been staying at the local homeless shelter for about a year.

This week, he's got himself some pumpkin pie -- along with turkey.

ALBERT: They put on a good meal here every Wednesday. It's been awesome, awesome. It's almost like a Godsend for us. A lot of people enjoy it. I know I've eaten very well here.

He didn't seem to want to say much about his circumstances.

ALBERT: I'm just waiting for some stuff to get done with my disability and all that stuff and just kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place, but I keep on going, and things like this help me.

Many declined to talk and sat by themselves on benches still damp from earlier rain showers.

We Hyun Chang is the pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Manchester.

The parish organizes the lunches and is sometimes joined by the Candia Congregational church.

CHANG: We share the meal. We don't pray. We don't worship, but I think we become the body of that divine love that we share together.

Chang leads the crowd in shouting the word Grace before the eating begins.

Volunteers say Wednesday lunches have grown from a few dozen people to as many as 140.

On the day before this year's Thanksgiving, about 200 people showed up to eat.

SOUNDS OF SERVERS WORKING THE TABLES:

FOR NHPR News in Manchester, I'm Ellen Grimm.