The St. Francis House will serve Thanksgiving dinner to at least 500 homeless people Thursday with a little help from the city.
This year, the shelter will serve food to the homeless community from the St. Francis House, 413 S Main St., and the Martin Luther King Jr. Center, 1024 NE 14th St., from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Kent Vann, executive director for the St. Francis House, said it was important to expand to another location to meet local demand.
A permit the St. Francis House holds with the city prohibits the organization from serving more than 130 people in one place. By expanding to the MLK Center, the shelter will be able to accommodate another 300 people at a time, though there is no cap on the number of meals that can be served at the MLK center. According to Vann, 1,000 were served last Thanksgiving, and numbers have been rising because of the economy.
“It shows there are times you have to look through things to make sure people are being served,” he said, adding that the city’s efforts to work with the center mean a lot.
Vann expects to provide 150 pounds of turkey and 100 pounds of potatoes, all of which was donated by members of the community.
The dinner will be staffed with 250 volunteers this year, and he encourages any students in town for the holiday to help by arriving at 7:30 a.m. to either the shelter or the recreation center.
Vann said the St. Francis House and the city are currently working on expanding the special-use permit so the shelter can expand its serving privileges on major holidays.
For now, he said the shelter still needs cooked turkeys, stuffing, canned vegetables, sugar, brown sugar and yams.
“It’s a community effort,” he said. “It’s pretty special.”
