This Thanksgiving, Orlando volunteers help prepare and serve meals so families may enjoy a fulfilling holiday meal. The Salvation Army is hosting a Thanksgiving Feast to feed the hungry in Orlando, which will use more than 4,000 pounds of turkey meat, 3,000 pounds of ham, 38,000 pounds of mashed potatoes, gravy, and other vegetable dishes, pies, and fruit.
Over 45 professional chefs are volunteering to work 3 days nearly around the clock, and hundreds of volunteers will help plate and serve the food. This year’s feast comes courtesy of Golden Corral executive Eric Holm, and is a record-breaker, with an expected crowd of 25,000 guests. Orlando’s Salvation Army Thanksgiving feast will be the biggest free holiday meal in Central Florida, but unfortunately not the only one.
Social service workers are concerned that a growing number of once-middle-class families have now exhausted personal savings now that unemployment rates are in the double-digits. In past years Orlando gets about 300 people for the Thanksgiving meal, but this year they are bracing themselves for the amount of families in need who have exhausted savings, unemployment funds and food stamps.
The Osceola Council on Aging serves the poor of all ages, and for the first time in its 20-year history, the charity’s pantry ran out of food because the demand is far exceeding the supply.
If your family or a family you know is struggling, there are a number of hosts to holiday meals in Central Florida:
The Salvation Army of Orlando’s Helpings from the Heart will run from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursday. You can eat in or ask for meals to go. 400 W. Colonial Drive, Orlando.
Orlando Union Rescue Mission will welcome the homeless and poor to its Great Thanksgiving Banquet Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The charity will distribute Bibles, serve a hot meal and give out clean clothes. 410 W. Central Blvd., Orlando.
Christian Service Center will have its food pantry open Wednesday until 3 p.m. Although there are only a few turkeys left, other Thanksgiving foods are available, and organizers promise no one will leave empty-handed. 808 W. Central Blvd., Orlando.
Coalition for the Homeless will serve a community breakfast Thanksgiving Day at 8 a.m., courtesy of the staff of the Orlando Magic. Anyone who is homeless or in need is invited. Free haircuts will be provided by Paul Mitchell The School, and entertainment for children and adults will follow the meal. 639 W. Central Blvd., Orlando.
The VUE at Lake Eola wishes all families in Central Florida a holday season to be thankful for.
Tags: feed the hungry, feed the hungry in Orlando, Helpings from the Heart, Orlando, Thanksgiving