Two events provide food for thousands

Thousands of people in and around Suffolk will have Thanksgiving dinner this year because of the generosity of people involved in two huge food giveaways in the downtown area on Saturday.

By 10 a.m., more than 500 people had filed through the parking lot at the Howard Mast Tennis Complex behind the North Main Street Farm Fresh. As they arrived, they received plastic shopping bags, a ticket with coupons that could be punched at various food stations and blessings from the volunteers welcoming them to Impact Suffolk’s 15th food giveaway.

Those who were unable to carry their bags as they were filled with cans of green beans or yams, boxes of stuffing and other staples of the Thanksgiving table were quickly aided by young helpers who walked with them and held their bags through each of the 45 or so stations being manned by volunteers from churches and businesses from around the area.

“It’s kind of lifting,” said Donna Small of QVC, whose Community Affairs Group had sent eight volunteers and a refrigerated tractor trailer load of frozen turkeys to the event.

“You don’t really appreciate the need until you see folks come together,” she said, noting this was the first year QVC had participated in the event.

Okpun Langley, who was in charge of the event for Impact Suffolk, said it represents a great opportunity for the nonprofit ecumenical organization to do all three parts of its mission — “to unite churches, serve the community and spread the gospel.”

In fact, the evangelical aspect of the event received more attention than ever this year, with a band offering praise music, Gideons handing out Bibles and an evangelistic team on hand to witness to and pray for those who had come for food.

“We want to do more than just talk about (evangelism),” Langley said.

Kathy Ruffin of Wakefield said she comes to the event in Suffolk every year.

“I’m blessed to be here,” she said after being given a turkey by QVC’s Small. “This comes in handy, because I’m retired.”

While the Impact Suffolk event wound down, two thousand frozen turkeys were being distributed across town, as businessman LeOtis Williams and 123 volunteers chipped away at a line that stretched up and down Old East Pinner Street.

The 2,000 turkeys bring the total Williams has bought and distributed during the past 10 years to 14,000, he said. This year, he also had 150 bushels of collards, 150 bushels of cabbage and 100 bushels of sweet potatoes to distribute, along with 2,000 hotdogs and 600 hamburgers being grilled throughout the day so recipients could get a hot meal before leaving.

“There’s a need,” said Williams. “So many people are suffering.”

While a volunteer carried her frozen turkey back to her vehicle and her grandchildren helped with the bags of vegetables, Jackie Faulcon — who had come to the event after hearing about it at her church, Faith, Hope & Love Ministries — reflected on what Thanksgiving means to her: “It’s a time of being thankful for what you’ve got,” she said.

By that measure, when the day was done on Saturday, there were thousands of people in Suffolk and the surrounding area whose newly full refrigerators attested that they had more to be thankful for when they went to bed than when they’d awakened.