Staff members at Manna soup kitchen, joined by more than two dozen volunteers, worked tirelessly Thursday to prepare and distribute Thanksgiving meals, which were available for pickup or delivery.
Sean Haught, Manna’s kitchens and facilities manager, said the nonprofit prepared 1,200 meals this Thanksgiving – a notable increase from last year. Meal distribution required an impressive inventory, including 40 turkey breasts, 250 pounds of potatoes, 1,000 rolls, 160 pies, and 10 cases of lettuce and green beans.
“It’s about making sure every person has a hot meal, at least one day per year,” said Haught, underscoring the kitchen’s mission to address food insecurity.
Manna Program Director Chris Andrews said the kitchen served about 100 more meals this Thanksgiving compared with last year, signaling a growing need.
Haught said Manna may soon lack the capacity to continue hosting the large-scale meal preparation in its current format, saying the La Plata County Fairgrounds would be a more favorable location to host the event.
“It would help,” Haught said. “We just did over 1,000 meals, I don’t know if we could physically do more in this location.”
For decades, an annual Thanksgiving community dinner was a cherished tradition at the La Plata Fairgrounds. However, the event was canceled in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since, the dinner has not returned and Manna has stepped in to provide meals.
Manna’s community meals are often perceived as being primarily for La Plata County’s unhoused population. However, Andrews said the meals are open to anyone in need. They serve not only the unhoused population but also people who may not have a place to share Thanksgiving or are struggling to make ends meet.
“Most of those meals today went out to homes, households – people who have somewhere to sleep, but maybe not a Thanksgiving meal,” Andrews said. “It definitely reflects that a lot people’s money and resources are going toward making sure they have a roof over their head. Then, things like food insecurity start to set in, because you have to make those difficult choices: Do I pay for food or do I pay my rent?”
For Andrews, the Thanksgiving community meals hit close to home. Andrews spent years homeless and struggling with substance use. But what helped him in his recovery was passing along the message of community service.
“It’s a way for me to be active in my recovery rather than just go to work,” he said.
Manna, along with help from Durango Vineyard Church, delivered more than 700 meals to those who signed up while distributing up to 500 meals on site. Some of the meals went out to local grocery store workers who had to work on the holiday.
Haught said some of the meals were delivered to residents in transitional housing. The effort was supported by a team of about 26 volunteers who handled the deliveries.
Two volunteers, Amanda Turek and Isaiah Van Der Kooy, moved here from Phoenix last year.
The two had volunteered at soup kitchens in Phoenix for several Thanksgivings and were delighted to find a similar opportunity in Durango. For them, it was about giving back to their new community while also experiencing a sense of family and connection.
“We haven’t lived with family for a bit, and so this is kind of a bigger sense of a family,” Turek said. “Kind of help other people if we don’t have families to hang out with.”
It was a busy morning for the two volunteers who had distributed over 50 meals within the first hour of the kitchen opening.
For those involved, the experience is deeply rewarding, though coordinating the effort is a monumental task.
“We’re trying to pump out 1,000 meals on top of preparation for daily operations,” Haught said, adding that he would need to be at the soup kitchen again first thing in the morning to prepare meals for the kitchen.
He said he often has to take time to reset from the holiday madness.
“After this, I go home and I don’t talk to anybody,” he said.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
