\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThrough several local efforts, thousands were able to enjoy a full Thanksgiving meal. Whether it was community centers putting their best foot forward or police officers going door to door, many people weren\u2019t hungry on Thursday.For nearly three decades, Pittsburgh police officers like Darrick Payton have been knocking on doors to start their Thanksgiving.\u201cI\u2019m in my 11th year,\u201d Payton said. \u201cI\u2019ve been giving them out for 11 years. In this season, there\u2019s more people in need than we think.\u201dPayton\u2019s Zone 1 station handed out 660 meals Thursday morning to people in homes, high-rises and apartments.\u201cIt\u2019s awesome,\u201d the officer from Zone 1 said. \u201cIt really brings home about why we\u2019re here, what we\u2019re doing and why it matters.\u201d A total of 5,600 boxes filled with turkey, stuffing and a Smiley Cookie were handed out across Pittsburgh Public Safety\u2019s six zones.Father Patrick Carpenter, of St. Mary Orthodox Church, helped put the boxes together.\u201cSt. Mary\u2019s Orthodox Church has been involved for the last 20 years. For the last two years, it\u2019s had to be outside of the church because the numbers have grown so great,” Carpenter said. “Neighbors came together for four days. Volunteers were down at Heinz Hall making the food. Today, it\u2019s all being distributed. Thank God.\u201dCarpenter told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 that he\u2019s thankful to be able to not just provide the meals, but shine a light on the men and women who deliver them. \u201cWe think of the police, often times, as those solving crimes,\u201d he said. \u201cToday, we see them in their proper roles as blue angels who are there to help everyone. Love is abundant throughout the whole program. It\u2019s a very joyful event. At the end of the day, everyone is tired and happy that we\u2019ve touched our neighbors.\u201dAt the Promise Center in Homewood, getting meals out the door starts early. \u201cWe already sent out over 600 meals before 11 o\u2019clock,\u201d said Nate Goodson, the center\u2019s executive director. \u201cThis is my fourth Thanksgiving feeding the community and feeding the seniors. We prepare the food. We pack it and take it. It\u2019s family oriented. It\u2019s a family program. Everybody just comes, mingles and talks.\u201dSome people, like Mashkur, prefer having some fellowship with their meal. \u201cI\u2019ve been coming for the last three years,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m thankful to be able to be here with people. Every year, I can\u2019t put a number on it, there are hundreds of people who come here and benefit from this institution right here. It\u2019s the children all the way to the elders.\u201d The food, conversations and effort all make for a lot of gratitude on the fourth Thursday in November. \u201cThat\u2019s probably one of the best things we can learn from this,\u201d Mashkur said. The ability to serve the people.\u201d\u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m thankful for,\u201d Goodson said. \u201cJust to put smiles on people\u2019s faces.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tPITTSBURGH \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Through several local efforts, thousands were able to enjoy a full Thanksgiving meal. Whether it was community centers putting their best foot forward or police officers going door to door, many people weren\u2019t hungry on Thursday.<\/p>\n
For nearly three decades, Pittsburgh police officers like Darrick Payton have been knocking on doors to start their Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in my 11th year,\u201d Payton said. \u201cI\u2019ve been giving them out for 11 years. In this season, there\u2019s more people in need than we think.\u201d<\/p>\n
Payton\u2019s Zone 1 station handed out 660 meals Thursday morning to people in homes, high-rises and apartments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s awesome,\u201d the officer from Zone 1 said. \u201cIt really brings home about why we\u2019re here, what we\u2019re doing and why it matters.\u201d <\/p>\n
A total of 5,600 boxes filled with turkey, stuffing and a Smiley Cookie were handed out across Pittsburgh Public Safety\u2019s six zones.<\/p>\n
Father Patrick Carpenter, of St. Mary Orthodox Church, helped put the boxes together.<\/p>\n
\u201cSt. Mary\u2019s Orthodox Church has been involved for the last 20 years. For the last two years, it\u2019s had to be outside of the church because the numbers have grown so great,” Carpenter said. “Neighbors came together for four days. Volunteers were down at Heinz Hall making the food. Today, it\u2019s all being distributed. Thank God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carpenter told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 that he\u2019s thankful to be able to not just provide the meals, but shine a light on the men and women who deliver them. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe think of the police, often times, as those solving crimes,\u201d he said. \u201cToday, we see them in their proper roles as blue angels who are there to help everyone. Love is abundant throughout the whole program. It\u2019s a very joyful event. At the end of the day, everyone is tired and happy that we\u2019ve touched our neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the Promise Center in Homewood, getting meals out the door starts early. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe already sent out over 600 meals before 11 o\u2019clock,\u201d said Nate Goodson, the center\u2019s executive director. \u201cThis is my fourth Thanksgiving feeding the community and feeding the seniors. We prepare the food. We pack it and take it. It\u2019s family oriented. It\u2019s a family program. Everybody just comes, mingles and talks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some people, like Mashkur, prefer having some fellowship with their meal. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been coming for the last three years,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m thankful to be able to be here with people. Every year, I can\u2019t put a number on it, there are hundreds of people who come here and benefit from this institution right here. It\u2019s the children all the way to the elders.\u201d <\/p>\n
The food, conversations and effort all make for a lot of gratitude on the fourth Thursday in November. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s probably one of the best things we can learn from this,\u201d Mashkur said. The ability to serve the people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m thankful for,\u201d Goodson said. \u201cJust to put smiles on people\u2019s faces.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Through several local efforts, thousands were able to enjoy a full Thanksgiving meal. Whether it was community centers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[27493,524,584,27494,11290,1515,2163,12026,14466,19184,73,75,74,745,206,2296,1274,7213,3522,9394],"class_list":["post-46650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-11th-year","tag-community","tag-community-center","tag-darrick-payton","tag-door","tag-food","tag-homewood","tag-many-people","tag-meal","tag-neighbor","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-police","tag-police","tag-police-officer","tag-thanksgiving","tag-thousand","tag-thursday","tag-zone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}