‘It helps to not feel alone during a time that is to be festive for everyone else,’ said Hope Mission’s Adeoluwa Adeoye.
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Hundreds came to the Hope Mission near Downtown Edmonton on Friday night for the charity’s annual Thanksgiving feast, an event organizers say is as much about building community as it is providing a meal.
The charity regularly hosts three meals each day, but Friday’s turkey feast goes beyond that, says Hope Mission’s Adeoluwa Adeoye, in an effort to bring people together for an experience that’s often beyond the reach of many in attendance.
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“Instead of the community members walking to the kitchen and then getting the foods served to them in a tray, everyone gets seated down, and then the food is brought to each and every person,” Adeoye said.
“The idea is that it’s like if you went for Thanksgiving dinner with your family and your friends. They get that feeling of community, of fellowship with one another, and just people caring for them and serving them and waiting on them”
He said many of those being served Friday night have no where to go and nobody else to be with on days like Thanksgiving.
“These dinners how help them feel like they’re in a home like they’re a part of a community,” he said.
“It helps to not feel alone during a time that is to be festive for everyone else.”
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Adeoye says a team of about 30 volunteers served upwards of 500 people at Friday evening’s meal.
He said organizers and volunteers find their own reasons for giving of their time over the holiday weekend.
“To be able to contribute to the betterment of another person’s life … there’s a sense of fulfilment that comes with that,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s about contributing to the work of a social care agency as much as it is contributing to, the life of another human being.”
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Special meals like that on Friday also provide a venue for those there to be accepted for who they are without judgment.
“We don’t want our community members to have the same experience they might have in some other places in the city,” Adeoye said.
“Whatever rejection they experience outside in other parts of the Edmonton community, we want them to not feel that when they come to Hope Mission.”
He says those feelings of acceptance and togetherness shared by volunteers and those eating is what makes the Thanksgiving meal so special.
“I think that’s that’s the business we are in, humanizing people.”
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