Community is family
A server’s perspective of the Thanksgiving Love Feast
This year, Thanksgiving was different for me. I was on my own. The house was empty. For our family, it has always been a time as special as Christmas Day, when everyone came in from out of town and saw each other for the first time all year or longer. Aunts, Uncles, and cousins would gather at my grandparents’ house.
Since both my grandparents are gone now, that tradition has changed and we do not gather anymore. Cousins have gotten married, had children, and started their own traditions.
When you are the last single person in the bunch, you either travel to attend a holiday event, wait on a friendly invite, or just adjust. I decided this year to adjust and to take advantage of being on my own by doing something I have been meaning to do for a while — serve others.
Volunteers arrived at the Civic Center at 9 a.m. to prepare food and goods for this year’s Love Feast, an event organized by Rev. Terrell Shields.
Making a change
On a holiday as sacred in its tradition as Thanksgiving Day, the willingness to share it with strangers is something I find especially touching.
For many of us, watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, having a special brunch, or simply enjoying a day off with one another is family tradition on Thanksgiving. Time in our own kitchens is hard to give up when there’s so much to be done and when it’s the one day of the year when food is more celebrated than any other.
Most volunteers I spoke to told me that they had family gatherings to attend when they finished at the Civic Center. Several still had dinners to oversee and families to prepare for once they departed. Yet, they wanted to be a part of making sure others felt included and loved. As I spoke with those preparing the food and clothing, the message was the same: They were thankful for God’s goodness and that they were in a position that afforded them to serve and to help.
I started the morning helping to debone turkeys. Next to me at the table was Chloe Garth-Fielder, a 9th grade English teacher from Darlington.
Chloe, who has volunteered since she relocated back to Rome in 2017, said she was taught that we must be the change we wish to see in this world.
“If I, myself, am not the change, how can I ask for change,” she asked rhetorically.
Seth Moon, a junior at Model High School, was across from us at the table. Seth came because he wanted to be involved in community service.
“I was so pleased to see Seth here this morning,” Garth-Fielder said. “It’s so important that our young adults take part in community efforts. They are just as much a part of the community and can make a difference.”
People from all walks of life came to give of their time on Thanksgiving Day.
There were several younger people present, working diligently at organizing donated clothing. There were children helping adults separate and package donated desserts. In the kitchen area, women and men were preparing side dishes and warming donated turkeys. Men were arranging tables and furniture to prepare to receive community guests.
I met some grandmothers who brought their grandchildren. Entire families came to volunteer. By the end of the event over 100 volunteers had shown up, and around 930 guests had been served. There was a spirit of humility all around. Those there to help were honored to do so and grateful they had the means.
Plenty to go around
Volunteer, Minister Wartanna “Beedie” Haywaad, who oversees the non-profit Feed My Sheep Impacters, helped organize desserts.
“We show that we are thankful for what we have by turning around and giving it to someone else,” she said. Love, laughter, friendship, and family is what makes Thanksgiving Day so special to her. There was plenty of that to go around at the Love Feast.
The event succeeded in making sure that the community knew that it was part of a family, as it has done for its 32 proceeding years.
Rome City Commissioner Bonny Askew has spent several Thanksgivings with Rev. Shields. Growing up Thanksgiving was a time to enjoy family, he said. He brings that love for family when he comes to serve.
“To me, Rome is family. This community is family. This is what I’m supposed to do,” Askew said.
Billy Carmichael shared that this was his first year volunteering at the Love Feast.
“I’m at a point now where I want to share more of my time with other people since I’m nearing retirement. Thanksgiving is a time to share blessings.”
Phyllis Dodson has been volunteering since 2007, as well as overseeing a fundraiser for the event. “I love the Lord and love helping others. There are so many in need.”
Her niece Geynah Carmichael said this was her first year as a volunteer. “I wanted to be a part of giving back. Thanksgiving is about being amongst the living and caring for one other.”
Since the beginning
Jan Fergerson’s family has had special ties to the Love Feast since the beginning.
Rev. Shields reached out to Fergerson’s father Rev. Warren Jones in 1987 to help make the event happen. Jones participated each year and several things became a tradition. One of those traditions involved Sylvia Shields singing “Happy Birthday” to Jones.
Jones, who passed in May, would have been 100-yearsold on Nov. 26.
This year, Ferguson’s family, as well as family friends from Seattle and Abu Dhabi, gathered to volunteer. A memorial was in place for Rev. Jones, and this year Sylvia Shields sang again in Jones’ honor — a very special tribute to a life-long friend and beloved community member who spent every Thanksgiving morning at the Love Feast.
Thankful
This Thanksgiving I was thankful to be surrounded by the hearts and hands of our community, both the givers and the receivers. I was thankful to meet the volunteers, all who served with such kindness and empathy for the needs of individuals and families who came. I was thankful for the people who lined up to receive.
Some were young parents who cradled infants, some were war veterans, some had fallen on hard times and have struggled to recover, some recently experienced loss due to the pandemic.
I saw people in the line outside the Civic Center hug and greet each another and wish one another a “Happy Thanksgiving.”
I heard “God bless you” and “God is good” from several men and women I met at the door.
Everyone of us has needs and have had times when we have needed to lean on the help of others or on services for support. We all know what that vulnerability feels like. The greatest take away from my first experience with Rome’s Love Feast was that this community is a family — those serving and those receiving were one in the same.
We are all in this together, and need not ever be alone.