‘A CELEBRATION OF HOPE’
Salvation Army prepares annual Thanksgiving luncheon
EL CENTRO — The Salvation Army continued its tradition of feeding the needy and homeless a Thanksgiving feast when the organization was expected to serve about 1,400 turkey lunches with all the trimmings Wednesday.
Several dozen volunteers from the army and the community dished out turkey with all the trimmings at the army’s thrift store and community center on Fourth Street and Ross Avenue around midday Wednesday.
“We are grateful to the community, and thankful for the help we have received,” said Salvation Army Maj. Antonio Horta, who along with his wife, Maj. Aide Horta, presided over their first Thanksgiving meal. The Hortas have been in charge of the El Centro Corps of the Salvation Army for about two months.
“The partnerships and relationships we have developed here in the Imperial Valley have been great,” Antonio Horta said. “We’re glad to be part of this wonderful county.”
As of deadline early Wednesday, volunteers were still arriving and setting up chairs and tables at the Fourth Street location and the food was still arriving from the Salvation Army’s kitchen on Fifth Street and Park Avenue near Adams Park.
Horta said Salvation Army staff have been cooking turkeys, shredding the meat and preparing the trimmings since Monday.
“This year,” he said, “we’ve been cooking about 62 turkeys.
“We’re trying to serve about 1,400 persons,” Horta added. “With the help of volunteers, and grocery stores like Costco and Lucky, we have been able to have this dinner ready.”
Volunteers — what Horta expected to number about 45 to 50 — were to begin to serve lunch around 11:30 a.m., with the meal lasting through 2:30 p.m. or so, or “until the food runs out,” he said.
“Right now at this moment,” Horta said Wednesday morning, “we’re just trying to get everything hot.”
Zochil Beltran and Maria Elena Roman, Salvation Army staff, were in the kitchen making fresh batches of stuffing in huge silver bowls and reheating large portions of fluffy mashed potatoes in oversized pots.
Beltran said it makes her feel good to be able to help prepare the meal. She’s been working with the army for about three years.
Roman has been preparing meals for the army for at least a decade.
The Hortas said the Salvation Army feeds the homeless and needy daily, serving about 140 meals a day.
“The need here is great,” he said. “We have a needy community, and it seems like the homeless population is growing just in the short time we’ve been here.”
The Hortas are just thankful that the Salvation Army is there to help, and that it can provide sustenance, to a community that needs it, both in the form of food, and emotional and spiritual support.
“We’re here to serve and make people feel, through the Salvation Army and the love of God, that they’re not by themselves, that someone is here who loves and cares for them.”
As for Wednesday’s big to-do, Horta said, “This is a celebration of love, a celebration of hope.”