Lodi charity groups take action to spread holiday joy

Several organizations in Lodi cook and serve a special Thanksgiving meal for hundreds of people and families without the resources to create their own elaborate holiday dinner.

At the Boys and Girls Club, Laura Baker spent all day on Nov. 17 cooking up a massive turkey dinner for club members and their families, about 250 people. Baker is the director of programs and services, but steps into the kitchen once a year for this event.

The work began at 6:30 a.m. for a 5 p.m. dinner in the gym on Poplar Street. Baker reserves the ovens at the Woodbridge Elks Lodge to cook all the turkeys, since she runs out of room in the club kitchen.

She and her team of staff and volunteers cooked 15 turkeys, 100 pounds of potatoes, 20 pies, 400 rolls and mountains of stuffing.

“They ask me to do this every year. The kids ask me when I am going to cook for them,” she said. “For some people, it’s the only Thanksgiving they’re going to have, so I make sure I do it every year. You don’t really realize how much it means to so many people. It’s a lot of work but totally worth it.”

Cheryl Francis, director and founder of Grace and Mercy Charitable Foundation, is serving a meal today for 400 people. During the week, her team gave away 165 turkeys and meal boxes with four days worth of food, including fixings for the Thanksgiving meal.

For Wednesday’s holiday lunch, Francis cooked 10 turkeys, seven pans of stuffing and went through about 60 cans of green beans. She estimates about 550 pounds of food will be served on Wednesday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

“We serve our meal ahead of time. Salvation Army does a great service on Thanksgiving Day, so we spend the day with our family and our volunteers,” she said.

Barry Crall and the five students in his culinary arts academy started cooking on Monday. They made mashed potatoes, stuffing and cooked turkey rolls. Crall serves the rolls instead of whole turkeys because he is expecting about 900 people, and about 150 of the meals will be delivered to locals who cannot leave their homes. Turkey rolls make it easier to portion out the meals, along with cups of mashed potatoes and stuffing.

Those meals will be boxed up by 10 a.m. Then volunteers arrive, collect their food and a map and deliver each box. The doors at the shelter are open for lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Crall says the meal usually runs through 3 p.m. as people sit, talk and enjoy their food. Each group is invited to sit at a table, where they will be served their food.

Thanks to his team of volunteers, Crall is not responsible for cleaning up after the meal.

“There are tons of people here willing to mop the floor and take out the trash,” he said. “Delegation, delegation, delegation.”