Breaking bread after heartbreak
Giving thanks has new meaning for displaced after fire
CHICO, Calif. — Hannah Crenshaw hosts a Thanksgiving dinner each year, cooking turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes — her favorite — for up to 15 guests at her home in Magalia.
That’s not an option this year. Her house burned down in the wildfire that tore through the town of Paradise and surrounding communities, killing at least 84 people and destroying more than 13,000 homes.
Instead, the 26-year-old Crenshaw was spending Thanksgiving with her husband’s family in nearby Durham. She’s trying to see the best in the heartbreaking situation.
“It doesn’t really feel like Thanksgiving,” she said. “But Thanksgiving’s my favorite holiday. I guess I have a lot to be thankful for this year with everything going on.”
The Camp Fire has displaced tens of thousands of people, with hundreds still unaccounted for. The blaze was 95 percent contained Thursday, two weeks after it began.
It won’t be a normal Thanksgiving for any of those families, but businesses and hundreds of volunteers have stepped up to ensure turkey, potatoes and pie are available for anyone who wants a plate.
Washington-based nonprofit World Central Kitchen is cooking 15,000 Thanksgiving meals, teaming with Chico-based Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., the local university and the town of Paradise to serve them Thursday. Volunteers prepared food and set up massive tables Wednesday.
“It will be a respite from the frantic activity of trying to put our lives back together and our town back together,” Paradise Mayor Jody Jones said.
Scores of volunteers also are opening their houses to strangers to provide a more intimate Thanksgiving.
Rachael Anderson is hosting a displaced mom and daughter at her home in Redding, about an hour and a half from Paradise. Anderson knows what it’s like to live in a community devastated by flames; a massive wildfire swept through Redding last summer.
She didn’t lose her home, and she now wants to share it with others in need. She’ll be joined by Athenia Dunham and her 15-year-old daughter, Natalie.
Some people didn’t even realize Thanksgiving had arrived amid the chaotic and emotionally draining rush of the past two weeks.
“Is that today?” Amy Sheppard asked Wednesday, rushing to pack her belongings in a trash bag as rain fell over a Walmart parking lot where she and many others had camped for days.
Sheppard would normally spend Thanksgiving with three dozen family members and friends at a home in Magalia. That home — a family friend’s — and her own both burned down. This year, she’s likely to spend the holiday in a hotel room.