Casales embody Thanksgiving

I WAS especially grateful this Thanksgiving for merchants with “hearts of gold,” like my friend Frank Casale. He and his brothers, Tony and Nick, are the owners of Saggios and Fastinos restaurants, all of which serve excellent and reasonably priced Italian cuisine. They generously share their gift of feeding people well, all year round, but in a huge way at Thanksgiving.

For the past 15 years Frank has supported the La Mesa Feast of Hope, a Thanksgiving Day meal held at La Mesa Presbyterian Church in the International District. The church serves about 1,500 meals that day; 800 at a community meal on site and another 700 taken out to seniors, veterans and people who are experiencing homelessness.

Frank started by giving us rolls and has added more food every year since. He always complained to me, “You never ask me for enough!” So, we asked for more.

This year Frank’s clan and restaurant staff provided 700 rolls, 700 cookies, hundreds of cheesecake servings, dozens of homemade pies, two warming ovens, as well as cooking, carving, and transporting 70 fullsized turkeys, many of which they purchased. Frank and some of his staff started warming the turkey at 3 a.m. to deliver for the takeout meals and transported more warming bins throughout the morning to feed the crowd.

For me, the essence of Thanksgiving is gratitude to God and care for neighbors. Thank you Frank, and your entire restaurant family, for embodying that spirit. I always wonder if there will be a year that Frank says to me, “You asked me for too much this Thanksgiving.” Frankly, I doubt it!

Merchants like these deserve accolades and to be patronized by the public all year round. REV. TREY HAMMOND Albuquerque