Free feasts: Area organizations provide Thanksgiving meals for people in need

Two area organizations are working to feed their hungry neighbors this Thanksgiving through food baskets containing all the ingredients needed for a holiday meal.

The Lakeville Church of the Nazarene at 180 Main St., provides between 20 and 25 baskets a year, with contents sourced from donations from members of the congregation and wider community. 

They contain non-perishable items, including canned vegetables, stuffing mix, gravy,  rolls and dessert products. There is also a gift card for recipients to purchase a turkey or other protein of their choice.

Stephen Hunt, the church’s pastor, has been overseeing the program since he joined the church staff five years ago, and said he knows just how meaningful the meals can be.

He grew up in a single-parent household, and government assistance and the generosity of others helped his mother feed her family. Without similar donated meals, he said, they would have gone without holiday meals.

“If it hadn't been for loving families and church folk when I was young, who helped us out during really hard times in my life, we wouldn't have had food on our table,” Hunt said. “When I think about programs such as this, it's our responsibility as those who have been blessed, to bless others.”

Now that he’s able to help provide food for people in need, he said it “means the world” to see the graditude in people’s faces and see how much the baskets mean to people.

While some go to people in the congregation, Hunt said most of the food baskets go to people in the community — especially older adults and people from other churches in the area. The baskets are distributed on a first come, first served basis, but he said most years some go unclaimed.

“I wish more people would take advantage of it,” he said.

He said he also hopes the program will help reduce stress around the holidays and remind people of what they have to be thankful for.

“The true person to give thanks to is to God, because it's not anything we are doing,” Hunt said.  “In reality, it's literally just returning the blessings that have been given and doing what we're called to do.”

In Middleboro, the Sacred Heart Food Pantry will distribute upwards of 450 meals to pantry clients, veterans, homeless shelter residents and a Brockton partner church. 

Clients will recieve the majority of the baskets, and pantry director David Cunningham said people have been signing up for them since October. 

“Its all focused around the people who use the pantry,” he said. “If someone wants a Thanksgiving meal, we just ask they register with us, and we give everyone a chance to over the course of a month of shopping time coming into the pantry to do their signing up for the meal.”

He said the pantry has been giving away holiday meals for most of the years it has been open. 

This year, he said he has seen a “definite increase” in the number of sign-ups, most likely in connection with the government shutdown’s lingering impacts on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“I know we're we're seeing a lot more sign ups by this point in time, and I think a lot of them are people who, because of the SNAP benefit issue, are signing up to use the pantry,” Cunningham said.

Sign-ups for the pantry’s baskets are open until Saturday, Nov. 15 and they will be distributed Tuesday, Nov. 18. For more information, visit the pantry website. 

The Lakeville Church of the Nazarene is accepting donations through Sunday, Nov. 24. To donate or get involved, contact the church at (508) 946-5287 or info@thelcn.org.

Anyone interested in receiving a basket can fill out a form on the church’s website. They will be distributed Nov. 25 from noon to 2 p.m.