The nonprofit is still short 200-300 jackets ahead of the big event on Wednesday.
MODESTO, Calif. — The Saturday before Thanksgiving is usually a quiet one for most kitchens, but at the Modesto Gospel Mission, the work is in full swing.
Volunteers move through a busy kitchen as donations coordinator Eddie Ryno prepares for what he says will be their biggest Thanksgiving meal yet.
“At 11 o’clock, there will be another 10 people showing up that want to donate their time,” Ryno said. “I have another crew coming in, a family coming in of 10 people at 4 o’clock, and then we’ll do it with a different ten tomorrow morning and a different ten tomorrow evening.”
The mission expects about 1,500 people to line up on Wednesday for a Thanksgiving meal — hundreds more than they usually serve, Ryno said.
This year also brings something new. Ryno said they are smoking more than 200 turkeys with the help of a friend who brought a 40-turkey smoker.
“We have so many turkeys this year. We have so many pies. We were short on a few things,” Ryno said. “The outpouring from the community has been spectacular.”
Even with the shelves now fully stocked for the meal, Ryno said there is still one crucial need.
“Besides having a meal, every child and adult comes and gets a new jacket too,” Ryno said. “We are still two to three hundred jackets short, so if anybody can bring down jackets, that would be awesome.”
For volunteers like Caroline Deering, the work is personal.
“I broke my back and I lost my housing,” Deering said. “I didn’t have anywhere to go… I was here for six months. The mission provided for me when I wasn’t able to.”
Now she spends days like Saturday keeping the kitchen buzzing.
“They provided for me when nobody could,” Deering said. “This is a labor of love.”
The Modesto Gospel Mission will serve its Thanksgiving meal on Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
“All this strife and all the uncertainties in the world, everybody is going to come here. Everybody is going to see everybody pulling together,” Ryno said. “It’s just a time to come together.”
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