Harold Fattig, of Texas City, and other members of Paradise Fishing Club had only one condition in exchange for frying local residents’ Thanksgiving turkeys.
Those seeking the service had to donate an extra turkey for the city’s annual Community Thanksgiving Feast, which serves a free meal to senior citizens, the homebound or low-income families.
Charitable organizations throughout Galveston County saw overwhelming increases in people seeking a hot meal on Thanksgiving, which most organizers attributed to job losses and people still reeling from Hurricane Ike last year.
Fattig’s fishing club has an annual tradition of frying turkeys the day before Thanksgiving in the parking lot of Fattig Office Systems, 211 Sixth St. N., in Texas City. For the past 13 years, club members have donated turkeys to the community feast. This year, they donated 50 turkeys, Fattig said.
“People are aware the need has increased,” he said. “I work for Catholic Charities, and we’ve seen the effects of Hurricane Ike coupled with the economy. The need in our community has grown significantly because of both of those factors.”
Texas City’s annual feast fed about 1,000 people Thursday, 800 of whom received meals delivered to their home.
It was the greatest amount of people the feast has served since it began 13 years ago, organizer Barbara White said.
Homebound residents who received the delivered lunch also got a bag of dry groceries.
As the need for Thanksgiving meals was greater, the amount of volunteers and donations received this year also increased, White said. Eight churches collected food for the meal, and United Way Mainland Communities donated paper plates and utensils.
Mission Texas City and Mission Galveston held their annual Thanksgiving dinners on Nov. 21 and Monday, respectively.
Both dinners attracted nearly double the amount of people who attended last year, Executive Director Raju Samuel said.
The organization mainly served low-income families and homeless people during their Thanksgiving dinners, he said.
“Several people told me they had lost their jobs and houses and were looking for a hot meal,” Samuel said. “The economy had a lot to do with our numbers increasing this year.”
Alta Caligone, of Hitchcock, founded Wilbur Chapel United Methodist Church’s annual Thanksgiving meal 28 years ago, after her husband died. Caligone, a member of the Hitchcock church for more than 70 years, wanted to give back to others who spend the holiday alone.
Volunteers served and delivered meals to about 210 disabled residents and senior citizens in Galveston, La Marque, Texas City and Hitchcock. Meals also were delivered to Hitchcock police officers working Thanksgiving and inmates in the city jail, Caligone said.
“This year, we had an increase in deliveries because of Ike,” Caligone said. “So many people were displaced, and so many people have lost their jobs.”
Even though volunteers who deliver food are briefly at someone’s home, that contact has a positive impact on homebound senior citizens and the disabled, Janice Hayes, organizer of the McKinney Foundation’s annual Thanksgiving dinner, said.
Volunteers served about 150 residents in La Marque and West Texas City out of McKinney Memorial United Methodist Church in La Marque.
“People aren’t always hungry for the food,” Hayes said. “The people we help, and even volunteers, get lonesome and want to come out and enjoy company of other people.”
