The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Virus alters how nonprofits serve Thanksgiving meals to clients
Thanksgiving dinner at Operation Hope is usually a loose, casual affair.
The Fairfield organization — which provides food, shelter and other services to economically disadvantaged people in the region — typically offers an “open house” Thanksgiving meal, available at lunch and dinner time. Anywhere from 20 to 80 people attend and the meal is served buffet style.
“People can come and go and feel like they’re having a real holiday,” said Carla Miklos, Operation Hope’s executive director.
But that’s not what the holiday meal will look like this year. Miklos said the organization will still offer a hot Thanksgiving meal, but it will be more structured and organized.
Clients come in three at a time and, instead of poking through a buffet, a meal will be served to them. The server will plate it, put it down on a counter and walk away. Then the clients will take the dish to socially distanced tables in the dining room and eat. Once a group of three is served, another may enter until capacity is reached.
It isn’t exactly festive, but Miklos said, in light of the COVID- 19 pandemic, this was deemed the best way to provide clients with what they need while protecting everyone’s health.
“We’re doing our best to accommodate the activity and be smart about being safe,” she said. “The part that’s missing is the fellowship.”
Though health authorities have cautioned against hosting Thanksgiving gatherings to help prevent the spread of COVID- 19, nonprofits like Operation Hope are also in a tough spot. The clients they serve often depend on them to provide a holiday meal, which they might not get otherwise.
These often take the form of bags filled with Thanksgiving meal fixings that clients can take home and prepare their own dinners. But many also serve a hot meal on the holiday, and several local nonprofits are either moving their Thanksgiving dinners to takeout affairs or drastically altering how they serve.
The Bridgeport Rescue Mission is among those switching from an inperson Thanksgiving dinner to takeout, distributing a cooked meal at its site at 1088 Fairfield Ave. The nonprofit also moved outside its annual Great Thanksgiving Project — in which it gives away bags containing all the ingredients for holiday meals. The Rescue Mission held a drive- thru giveaway at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport last week and also planned to distribute to families in Norwalk, Stamford and West Haven.
Like Miklos, Rescue Mission CEO Frank Williams said, not only are there greater safety concerns this year, there is also more need.
“While COVID- 19 has impacted us all, the people we serve have suffered severely,” Williams said. “This health crisis has become a hunger crisis for food- insecure families. Many were living on the edge before the pandemic, but lost jobs have meant the inability to pay bills and put food on the table.”
Others altering their Thanksgiving deliveries include the Salvation Army. Many outposts of the Salvation Army in Connecticut are predominantly offering takeout Thanksgiving meals, said Maj. Migdalia Lavenbein, the Salvation Army’s Greater Hartford area coordinator. She said the Hartford outpost is changing the way it delivers food, particularly to homebound seniors.
Lavenbein said the Hartford Salvation Army typically uses volunteers to help provide holiday meals to older people who are unable to leave their homes. The volunteers usually drop off the meal, but also sit and socialize with the clients, and give them some much- needed attention. Due to the pandemic, that can’t happen this year, Lavenbein said.
Instead, the delivery service DoorDash will drop off the meals with limited contact with the seniors.
“That’s going to be hard on our volunteers, but it’s going to be even harder on our seniors,” Lavenbein said. “For some of them, (the meal delivery) is the only social interaction they get.”
At Operation Hope, Thanksgiving during a pandemic doesn’t just mean socially distanced tables and altered serving protocols, but also taking the temperature of all diners before they enter and requiring masks. The nonprofit is also offering bags of Thanksgiving fixings for those who wish to make their own dinner.
This year is particularly challenging, Miklos said, because many people have lost jobs and the ability to provide for their families during the pandemic, making nonprofits such as Operation Hope even more vital.
Miklos said she isn’t sure how the pandemic will affect attendance at the Thanksgiving dinner, and hasn’t heard much feedback from the community.
“We anticipate that the numbers will be down a little due to the fear of COVID,” she said. “But there’s also the possibility that they will increase because of COVID.”