Thanks to GCC, residents enjoy holiday feast
For more than 250 local residents Thursday, the giving of thanks probably should have started with the folks at Greencastle Christian Church and their holiday volunteers.
Often putting their own holiday on hold or delaying their own cooking and celebrating or putting off a trip to grandma’s house for a couple of hours, a record number of 64 volunteers helped feed 263 Putnam County residents in the annual Thanksgiving Outreach Dinner at Greencastle Christian.
While it wasn’t a record turnout -- in 2014, the church served 290 people -- it nonetheless was a busy morning and afternoon in the GCC kitchen.
The outreach program records only go back as far as 2010 when Tammy Newgent took over organization of the effort, but the Thanksgiving dinner effort is at least several years older than that as created originally by Mary Anne Birt and Margie Smith.
On Thursday the 263 meals served were divided among deliveries (157), carry out (89) and dining in (just 17).
Volunteers delivered to 32 separate Putnam County locations in dropping off those 157 dinners.
And it’s at those stops that the real need is often best represented.
“It really hits home when drivers like Jim Christy come back and tell about what they have seen at some places,” Newgent said.
But the volunteers are not there to judge, just to aid those who don’t have the means or the ability to create and enjoy a true Thanksgiving dinner, and even those who may not have family to share a holiday meal with on Thanksgiving.
The Greencastle Christian dinner comes with all the fixings -- turkey, ham, dressing, noodles, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls and pies.
The numbers involved are quite mind-boggling.
It takes 36 pounds of turkey, Newgent noted, to feed the numbers the program draws. That was coupled with 22 dozen dinner rolls and 12 cases of green beans. Not to mention piles of mashed potatoes and oodles of noodles.
Then there were the pies -- 35 in all varieties, although on this occasion mostly the three P’s of pies -- pumpkin, pecan and peach.
When the dinners are delivered, Newgent sees to it that each delivery includes a hand-drawn picture, complete with a scripture, created by Sunday schoolers.
Invariably a few people, normally older women, Newgent said, will later call the church and comment on how much they enjoyed receiving the pictures from the children.
The number of people assisted by GCC on Thanksgiving has grown each of the past three years from 242 in 2015 to 258 last year and 263 this year.
While the dine-in group has dwindled from 41 in 2015 to 27 last year and 17 this year, the deliveries have jumped from 75 in 2015 to 132 last year and the 157 on Thursday.
Donations in support of the program are always welcome. Volunteers for next Thanksgiving are also sought.