CONNEAUT – Until the COVID-19 pandemic, the Corpus Christi parish served a Thanksgiving dinner to the community. Since then, that dinner became volunteers delivering meals and serving carryout meals.
As circumstances have changed recently, the parish decided it was time to once again open up the parish hall for a Thanksgiving dinner.
“We knew there was a big need this year,” Diocesan Pastoral Associate Nick Perkoski said. “We wanted to open up and do a sit-down or takeout dinner with people still delivering meals to a few homebound people.”
“Before COVID, we had a sit-down dinner,” Perkoski continued. “Since COVID, we just delivered to those who are homebound and those who want to pick up dinners. There weren’t too many, about 200. This year, we’re expecting about 500.”
The Community Thanksgiving Dinner will be held at Corpus Christi Parish Hall on Saturday, Nov. 22, at noon.
“It is part of our ministry to gather people together, especially those in need, though people don’t have to be in need to come,” Perkoski said. “It’s a way to gather the community and, at the same time, feed the hungry. That’s our primary goal as Catholic and Christian churches. It’s our duty to do this as part of our ministry.”
The church has accepted approximately 500 reservations for the meal.
“We really weren’t thinking it would be this huge, but because of the government shutdown and the SNAP benefits, people have been worried about where their meals are going to come from,” Perkoski said. “We took reservations and we’re at nearly 500. We were expecting about 250, so we doubled it.”
Volunteers have already begun preparing the meals.
“The ladies have already been cooking the turkeys,” Perkoski said. “They’ve shredded it and put it in pans in the freezer. We can’t cook all of those turkeys at once.”
Corpus Christi has received assistance from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, the Conneaut Human Resources Center and Corpus Christi service ministry Matthew 25 in planning and preparing the meal. The Salvation Army and the Conneaut Area Ministerial Association assisted with monetary donations.
“This is a great community, a very giving community,” Perkoski said. “It’s a good thing that we’re able to do this, to gather like this in thanksgiving for what God has given us and not only for us, but for the community.”
The parish is able to host the dinner because of the generosity of its parishioners as well as the community at-large.
“We have the Matthew 25 committee, which is an organization within the parish,” Perkoski said. “For the last four years, it has done a variety of different ministries for the community. Our parish is extremely generous in ongoing donations to this group. (The Matthew 25 committee) has built up quite a bit of money in preparation for this. We got a lot of donations of turkeys, as well. The people of Conneaut and this church are very giving. We’ve had a ton of volunteers donate time for these types of ministries, too.”