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Michele Tucker, executive director of Kumler
Neighborhood Ministries, says she doesn’t want to see families go
without on Thanksgiving. That’s why her organization and others around Springfield are kicking
their efforts into overdrive this week to ensure that families are well
equipped and well fed during the holidays.
Tucker says Kumler Neighborhood
Ministries is on track to help more families than usual this year, thanks
to Mid-West Family Broadcasting’s “Stuff a Truck”
fundraiser, held last weekend. Not only did her organization receive
donated nonperishable food items from one “stuffed” semitractor
trailer, but she also says the Super Wal-Mart on Dirksen Parkway stepped up
and filled a second trailer with items donated by its vendors.
“The ‘Stuff a
Truck’ is icing on the cake for us during the holidays,” Tucker
says, “because we get specialty items that we don’t normally
buy. “They’ll make for a
very good Thanksgiving meal.”
Kumler Neighborhood Ministries,
an emergency food pantry, can now provide a full holiday meal, including
turkey or ham, mashed potatoes, and stuffing, on top of four or five
days’ worth of groceries to its clients, Tucker says. This helps, she
adds, because the pantry, which normally serves 80 to 90 clients daily,
triples it numbers during the holiday season. “These are people who are
concerned about having a Thanksgiving meal for their family,” Tucker
says. “At holiday time we see a lot of families that never ask for
assistance.”
Social-service agencies such as
the Salvation Army and St. John’s Breadline also lend a hand by
preparing Thanksgiving meals for individuals and families who don’t
have any other place to go during the holidays. The Salvation Army received a
holiday surprise, says Dave MacDonna, capital-campaign and development
director, when members of the First Presbyterian Church called and offered
to prepare and serve a Thanksgiving meal to residents of the Army’s
emergency shelter and Springfield Overflow Shelter. In addition to serving
the 100-plus residents, MacDonna says, the church also donated $3,000 to
the Salvation Army for the purchase of a new oven and stove. Kevin
Kindred, supervisor at St. John’s Breadline, says his organization
has been preparing a Thanksgiving meal for the area’s families since
the Depression era and usually serves 650 people, many of them homeless or
low-income. He says the biggest hurdle is getting enough donations to
prepare the meal, but all’s well again this year thanks to the annual
donation of 30 turkeys from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
But, he says, the organization
can always use additional donations.
Contact Amanda Robert at arobert@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Nov 15-21, 2007.
