Friday, November 28, 2008

No leftovers

He showed up late. It was nearly 12:45 and Manna's Thanksgiving dinner had started at 12:00. At first he thought he would just leave, but I talked him into coming in to take some food with him. When we arrived in the kitchen, we learned that all the leftovers had been handed out. There were slices of pie and an uncarved turkey, but everything else was gone. So I walked with him from St. John's Church where we served the meal, to Manna on Main Street, to check out the refrigerators there. I should have known - all the refrigerators were packed. There were bags of donated food all over the floor, down the hall and on the tables. The basement was filled with canned and boxed goods.

As I filled containers with turkey, stuffing, fresh vegetables and a half gallon of milk, he kept thanking me. I told him he was welcome and reminded him that I'm not responsible for the bounty, it's really this community. We shook hands, and then he headed off. I knew he didn't have a family or a home to go to, but at least he was fed for the day. He'll be back again on Saturday, next week, next year...

No comments: