LITTLE ROCK — Having grown up in a family of 16 children, Peggy Osler knows how to make a meal, and Thanksgiving may be her specialty.
Osler, who just turned 69, spent her Thanksgiving morning wrapping slices of pie, dishing out green beans and making sure people who needed a meal on a day centered around family and the sharing of food got one of the best meals of their year. She made 10 sweet potato pies with “the good, real butter” Tuesday and Wednesday and cut big slices for all the families who arrived at Bethesda Missionary Baptist Church on Brown Street looking for a hot meal.
“Thanksgiving is a big deal for me; I’m by myself and my grown children and grandchildren and everybody comes over,” she said. “But what I am most thankful for is just being here and being able to help people.”
Osler said she inherited her helping spirit from her mother, who even though she had 16 mouths to feed would still manage to find a little extra when a neighborhood family was going without.
“It’s important to do what you can, and that is something I will always carry with me because of her,” Osler said.
Osler was one of about two dozen volunteers who cooked, packed and delivered homemade Thanksgiving meals from the church’s pantry and the Five Porches Community Development Corp., a nonprofit affiliated with the church. As of 10:30 a.m. Thursday, pantry volunteers had already boxed up 475 meals, more than any year in the past 14 that the program has run.
“We get lots of reports from people who are without food or maybe it’s the end of the month and the paychecks aren’t stretching far enough, and we want to fill in that gap,” said pastor Milton Graham. “We’re a small church, but we made fliers and we put out the word and asked people to put out the word to anybody they knew who needed help this holiday. We said if they called and left a message on our answering machine we would make sure they got a hot meal.”
The kitchen in the small church was abuzz with laughter and singing. Al Hager wiped his forehead after standing over steaming plates of turkey and fixings.
“It feels good to be out here and to give back and help people. And after this I’m gonna go make a meal for my family,” he said.
Another volunteer jokingly asked if he was still hungry for Thanksgiving dinner.
“Hey, I haven’t been eating; I’ve been sampling. We gotta make sure we’re sending out good food,” Hager laughed.
At the Union Rescue Mission on Confederate Boulevard, staff members spend most of the year helping people get back on their feet, but Thursday volunteers told everyone who arrived for a hot meal to have a seat and relax.
“We wanted them to feel like they are the most important today,” said William Tollett, executive director of the nonprofit. “So, from getting them drinks and serving them dinner and refilling glasses, we are going to wait on them today.”
Tollett said it was hard to gauge how many people would be fed Thursday because there were several new spots that had started offering Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless in downtown Little Rock. The agency also gave out 800 family dinner boxes this week for people who needed some help making a Thanksgiving celebration.
“We prepared for 350 people, and if we don’t serve that many... food never goes to waste in this organization,” he said.
The agency will spend the next month trying to reach its fundraising goal of an additional $50,000 in matching funds to keep a $450,000 operating grant. However, the group has had no problems meeting goals for volunteers.
Staff members said Thanksgiving server slots are normally filled up by August. Sisters Jennifer, Meredith and Margo Lee were there as a family with their mother to volunteer at the dinner Thursday.
“We wanted to do something different this year,” said Meredith, a 23-year-old studying social work in St. Louis. “I’m thankful that we can be together and serve together this holiday.”
Margo, 17, agreed, “We aren’t going to be arguing over little things. I think all of us are going to focus on the big picture ... just being together.”
For Jennifer, helping people in need took on an especially poignant meaning this holiday. The 24-year-old lives and works in New York City and saw firsthand the effects of Hurricane Sandy as it washed over parts of the city. She returned home for a few weeks while things got back to normal in New York, but wanted to do something to help less-fortunate people.
“The building where I work has been closed since Sandy. My apartment was flooded, too, and some people are just this week getting power back after running on generators,” she said. “There are so many people who lost so much, who lost everything, and it just feels really important to help people, wherever you can.”
In Maumelle, the mayor and several council members donned aprons, and plastic gloves, blessed the food and helped serve dinner to hundreds who turned out for the fifth annual Hometown Thanksgiving at Jesse Odom Community Center.
The event sponsored by the Timmons Arts Foundation included more than just a home-cooked meal. Volunteers raffled off door prizes, did magic tricks, played games with the kids, and ran a cakewalk and bingo games for donated prizes.
“The city did this years ago and some seniors in the community contacted us and told us there was still a need, so we decided to revive it about five years ago,” said Theresa Timmons, spokesman for the foundation. “The best part has been giving back to this community and being able to talk to all the people who really needed a hometown meal, or just really needed the company today.”
At a table in the middle of the gymnasium-turned dining room, Mary and Jim Crews, both in their 80s, sat with four generations of their family soaking in the Christmas music and being thankful for 63 years of marriage - a milestone they celebrated this week.
“We’re blessed. We’re blessed to be here with each other and celebrate together,” said Mary Crews. “My great grandson fell in love with the cakewalk five years ago when we came here for the first time and no matter what else is going on, we come back. It’s just another blessing.”
Arkansas, Pages 12 on 11/23/2012