Project Thanksgiving: Keeping the turkey dinners coming

This year, this month in fact, Zion City Care Center needs help. On Saturday, Nov. 22, 1,500 families will receive a complete turkey dinner. Included in the meal is a frozen turkey, stuffing, a can of green beans and corn each, eight rolls, 10 potatoes and a frozen pumpkin pie. 

For the 1,500 families who signed up, the meal is completely free. 

The event will begin at 8 a.m. and ends three hours later at 11, which makes for at least 500 people an hour who will pass through the center’s doors, located at 2561 W. Ruthrauff Road. Look for the giant lion mural on the front.

“The thought behind it is you’re not coming to us to sit here and eat a meal,” Pastor David Rivera, executive director of the center, said. “You’re here to take it to your family and prepare it on (Thanksgiving) and to be with your people.”

This is why the care center is calling for volunteers. Without help this event could be a madhouse. 

The day starts early. 

“We ask volunteers to arrive at 7 a.m.,” Rivera said. 

Volunteers are divided into teams and take care of such tasks as restocking the shelves and accompanying “shoppers” through the line. Help is needed to carry heavy groceries to cars and check people in. 

Volunteers are also needed to help determine if meal recipients might need extra assistance community partners may be able to provide. Among those organizations represented will be:

Foodsmart, which provides no-cost nutrition support

Portable, Practical Educational Preparation (PPEP), which provides a variety of human, economic, microbusiness, education, charter schools, health, housing, counseling, employment, job training, humanitarian aid and services to the development disabled to name a few 

PMHDC Southwest Medical Aid (PSMA), which collects and redistributes surplus medical equipment and supplies to those who may otherwise go without it.

It’s not just church people Rivera is asking for. Anyone who is so inclined is invited to help, religious or not.

“You don’t have to be a Christian or a part of our church,” he said. “We have a number of our volunteers who don’t have a relationship to the church but they come here and they volunteer. A lot of our medical volunteers are not believers but they want to serve the community so we provide a space where they can do that.”

This year’s Project Thanksgiving was made possible by several companies. Among them: Sysco, a wholesale food and restaurant supplier, gave a donation of $20,000, which went to buying turkeys. The American Heart Association gave $9,500, which was spent on turkeys and potatoes. Foodsmart donated potatoes to 500 families. The rest is funded by Zion City, which has several locations around the Old Pueblo. 

Even if donors cannot or don’t want to give thousands, Rivera said he is happy to receive even $1. Rivera said $30 will feed a family and that 100% goes to Project Thanksgiving. 

Although the care center is on the Zion City Flowing Wells campus it is its own separate entity.  

“The church is Zion City and we’re Zion City Care Center,” Rivera said. “I think it’s hard for folks to separate the two and realize that we’re here, we’re separate.”

Even so, the foundation of the Zion City Care Center is a belief in the saving work and love of Jesus Christ.

“I think (in the epistle of) James, he talks about, ‘show me your faith by your works,’” Rivera said. “We believe you’re not saved because of works but if you truly have a relationship with Jesus then an outflow of that is going to be serving others.”

Again, not all volunteers believe that, nor does it matter.

“If you’re out in the community and you want to get involved somewhere, join us,” Rivera said. “We want more people to get involved.” 

To volunteer to help with Project Thanksgiving, visit zioncity.me/events/flowingwells-campus/project-thanksgiving