‘Grateful’ for Thanksgiving meal
At 50 years old, Edwena Borchers is used to being the provider.
She cooked for her neighbors last year at the mobile-home park where she lived in Apache Junction, and she still prides herself on the “moral support” she gives to those around her.
But Borchers said she struggles with mental illness — bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia. She and her dog, Zeus, have been homeless since Aug. 10, and they slept behind dumpsters and under bridges before getting into a shelter.
She began to cry Thursday after feasting on what she dubbed an “out of this world” volunteer-provided Thanksgiving Day meal packed with all of the holiday fixings.
“I wish I was here helping, and not the victim,” she said, wiping away tears. “I have been running into so many roadblocks.”
Borchers was one of about 400 people who attended a free Thanksgiving Day lunch in downtown Phoenix provided by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
While the nonprofit distributes free meals to homeless and near-homeless people in the Phoenix area year-round, Thursday’s meal at its downtown dining room had reinforcements — it was bolstered by music, haircuts, gift cards and even chiropractic adjustments.
St. Vincent de Paul planned to serve approximately 4,200 Thanksgiving meals at its various local locations Thursday.
“I’m grateful,” Borchers said. “But this is not me ... I don’t want to be here for years. It will break me.”
A deck ‘stacked against them’
The Rev. Tom Doyle is the director of André House, which offers services to people who are homeless at the Human Services campus adjacent to St. Vincent de Paul.
Some people Doyle sees regularly struggle with making decisions and maintaining traditional employment. Others have had a setback such as a family crisis and are about two paychecks away from getting back on their feet, Doyle said.
But they need support to get there. “For many of them, the deck was stacked against them a long time ago,” he said.
The goal should always be to get people connected with housing and with the services they need to live either independently or semi-independently, Doyle said.
“We want to create enough support to help them move along,” he said.
Many of the people who use the services at St. Vincent de Paul are senior citizens and middle-aged people, said Danielle McMahon, director of food services for St. Vincent de Paul in Phoenix.
The nonprofit sees a lot more volunteers than usual on Thanksgiving, McMahon said. Volunteers are needed year-round to help serve meals, but the extra assistance around the holidays is appreciated nonetheless.
“Thanksgiving is a time to open our doors and allow people to experience what it’s like to serve others,” McMahon said. “Hopefully they will come back when it’s not a holiday.”
‘It’s hard not having my family’
Jenett Muñoz, 32, sat quietly at an outdoor table after finishing her turkey and pie. She spent last Thanksgiving with her evicted.
This year, she’s living in a shelter. Her mom is taking care of her children.
“It’s hard not having my family. I want to have my own home and get my kids back,” she said.
She was grateful for the meal she ate, she added, and for the three carnations that volunteers handed to her. She put them in a plastic container for safekeeping.
Alex Martinez does not remember last Thanksgiving. He struggles with alcohol, and last year when he was living in Seattle, he was drinking too much.
Martinez, 50, was in a buoyant mood Thursday as he waited for a free chiropractic adjustment after enjoying his meal. He liked that the lunch included some Mexican food — he enjoyed the pozole, he said.
“I’ve been sober for a few weeks now,” he said. “Phoenix is a change of atmosphere.”
Martinez is looking for work in warehouses and says he can operate a forklift. He’s living in a shelter but dreams about a place of his own.
“I am tired of drinking,” he said. “It’s the drinking that brought me down.” four sons but said they got
Volunteering ‘plants a seed’
Phoenix resident and former football star Nick Lowery — Nick the Kick — has organized volunteers for the Thanksgiving meal for the past 12 years
His organization, Champions for the Homeless, brings volunteers, services and entertainment including celebrities and musicians to St. Vincent de Paul meals five times annually. They will be back at Christmas.
Volunteers, many of them current and former professional athletes, often bring their children to help.
It “plants a seed,” Lowery said. Lowery, who stopped to hug Borchers when he saw her crying, said Champions for the Homeless is the best thing he’s done in his life.
“Every single time a human taps into the fundamental power to help others, they are permanently changed,” Lowery said.
“Helping others allows us to break stereotypes. It may not be measurable in a bureaucratic way, but it is absolutely transcendent.”
To get involved with St. Vincent de Paul, go to www.stvincentdepaul.net/volunteer.