Thanksgiving is a time for families to get together and express their gratitude for the blessings they have received.
The word “family” includes those linked to an individual through biological and marital connections but also takes in the type of families formed by those in a community sharing their financial and spiritual gifts with others in need. Parishes and service agencies throughout the diocese will sponsor gatherings for this type of extended family during the Thanksgiving season on the holiday itself – Thursday, Nov. 28 – and the days surrounding it.
The tradition of a community Thanksgiving Day dinner at Columbus St. Aloysius Church goes back to the early 1970s. Sandy Bonneville, the event’s coordinator for 28 years, said she’s unsure when the dinner started, but that one of the founders was the late Steve Joyce, who got her family involved with it, and that the important thing is that it continues.
“It brings people in the Hilltop community (on the west side of Columbus) as a family year after year – an annual breaking of bread that keeps this diverse family together and still has people taking to each other in an age when it seems everyone stares at their phones,” she said.
The dinner at St. Aloysius, 2165 W. Broad St., will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Bonneville expects to serve about 1,000 dinners either at the parish hall, via takeout or through home delivery performed by Catholic Social Services volunteers. The Columbus Folk Music Society has been part of the event for the past decade and again will provide entertainment.
Dinners also will be taken to people living on the streets or in camps on the Hilltop and in the west side’s Franklinton area. Bonneville and other members of the St. Aloysius outreach committee also distribute food to those without homes in those areas throughout the year, with help from the Urban Encounter organization.
“Our Taking It to the Streets ministry takes our faith from the pulpit and the pew to the pavement,” Bonneville said. “We feed people’s bodies first with the hope of getting them to come to church and feeding their souls.”
Many turkeys for the event will be provided by the Fry Out Cancer organization, which since its founding in 2014 has donated more than $220,000 from turkey sales to the James Cancer Research Hospital and Solove Research Institute at Ohio State University (OSU) and to Nationwide Children’s Hospital. The Martha Circle, a women’s group affiliated with The Catholic Foundation, will bring pies.
Fry Out Cancer, led by Matt Freedman of New Albany and Dr. Sameek Roychowdhury of the James. became involved with the dinner through Bonneville’s son, Dr. Russell Bonneville Jr., who was a cancer researcher at OSU and now is at the University of Michigan. He has helped at the dinner since childhood and will be in Columbus for this year’s dinner. His father, Sandy’s husband Russell Bonneville Sr., played a key role at the dinner until his death in 2017.
Another long-running Thanksgiving dinner in the diocese is that of Circleville St. Joseph Church, 134 W. Mound St., which is providing Thanksgiving dinners for home delivery or carry out this year for the 40th time.
Parish secretary Mack Blankenship said more than 400 dinners of turkey, ham, green beans, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberries and milk usually are distributed each year. Help comes from about a dozen kitchen volunteers and many delivery volunteers, with money coming from the parish general fund and individual donors.
Pickaway County residents who call the church at (740) 477-2549 by Tuesday, Nov. 26 will have dinner delivered to their homes between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Dinners also will be delivered at the same times on Christmas Day, Wednesday, Dec. 25. The registration deadline is Friday, Dec. 20.
The Community Kitchen at the St. John Center, 640 S. Ohio Ave., next to Columbus Holy Rosary-St. John Church, will serve dinner in its dining room on Thanksgiving Day from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., said staff member Natasha Muldrow.
Columbus St. Dominic Church, 453 N. 20th St., will have a holiday lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22 in its hall and will distribute Thanksgiving food boxes beginning at 1 p.m. Monday, Nov. 25 to anyone requesting them, said parishioner Jaylan Dawson.
Many of the turkeys for the Community Kitchen will come from the 27th annual “Bring a Turkey to Church” weekend at Westerville St. Paul Church, 313 N. State St., which will take place after all Masses on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 23 and 24.
Large containers of Thanksgiving-related food and cash donations for the Community Kitchen also will be donated on that weekend. In recent years, enough turkeys have been collected to allow the kitchen to distribute the excess to other agencies serving needy families.
New Albany Church of the Resurrection, 6300 E. Dublin-Granville Road, is collecting frozen turkeys and donations for other items for the 17th year for Columbus St. Dominic and St. James the Less churches. Chris Luffler, who took over as coordinator for the collection from its founders, the Dixon family, said a large truck to receive the items will be parked outside the parish ministry center on the Saturdays and Sundays of Nov. 16 and 17 and Nov. 23 and 24. The goal is to collect more than 500 turkeys.
The Joint Organization for Inner-City Needs (JOIN), a diocesan agency at 578 E. Main St., Columbus, that serves the city and Franklin County, will receive at least 250 boxes of food for distribution from the Byron Saunders Foundation, a central Ohio organization that provides Thanksgiving meals annually to families in need, said JOIN director Lisa Keita.
The St. Francis Evangelization Center, 404 W. South St., McArthur, doesn’t have room to host a Thanksgiving dinner but gives about 500 Vinton County families a chance to have a family dinner at home through its annual Turkey Toss program. Eligible families come to the center and receive $40 food vouchers for use at Campbell’s Market in McArthur, the county’s only full-service grocery, said center director Ashley Riegel. Turkeys also are distributed to about 60 families who live in remote areas of the county.
The St. Vincent de Paul pantry at Logan St. John Church, 351 N. Market St., will distribute baskets with holiday dinner items on Sunday, Nov. 24 from noon to 1 p.m. to families who have registered for one.
Tim Peterson of the parish St. Vincent de Paul Society is asking for help with both donations and distribution, saying a large crowd is expected since the church is the only place in the Logan area distributing food baskets this year. He may be reached at (740) 603-8053.
Sunbury St. John Neumann Church, 9633 E. State Route 37, is part of a Christmas box drive sponsored by Big Walnut Friends Who Share, an outreach of churches in the Sunbury and Galena areas.
The parish is collecting canned potatoes and canned frosting for a Christmas meal, with other churches collecting other items. Anyone attending the church’s 9 a.m. Thanksgiving Day Mass is asked to bring canned or boxed foods for Friends Who Share.
West Jefferson Sts. Simon and Jude Church, 9350 High Free Pike, is collecting containers of instant mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing and also monetary donations for meat for the community’s Good Samaritan Food Pantry. It also is putting together “blessing bags” of clothing, personal care items and toiletries for those who need them. The parish Knights of Columbus council is collecting winter coats, gloves and hats through Sunday, Dec. 8.
The pantry at Columbus St. James the Less Church, 1652 Oakland Park Ave., will distribute nearly 400 two-box food baskets for Thanksgiving, said parish St. Vincent de Paul Society member Jim Siebold. One box will contain turkey, produce, bread and eggs, with nonperishable items in the other. Siebold and pantry manager Pat Woods said the items are donated by the Church of the Resurrection, Westerville St. Paul Church and several other parishes and by Columbus St. Francis DeSales High School students.
Zoar Holy Trinity Church, 1835 Dover-Zoar Road N.E., in cooperation with the Tuscarawas Valley Ministerial Association, will distribute dinners on Nov. 24 to homes, workplaces, domestic violence shelters, firehouses and hospices. The dinners will be prepared at the church and include turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, dressing, cranberry salad and pie.
New Lexington St. Rose Church, 309 N. Main St., is sponsoring its annual Turkey Trot 5-kilometer run or walk at 9 a.m. Thanksgiving Day in the parking lot of its former school at 119 W. Water St. Registration is $25 on the day of the race. The parish also is collecting food items on Nov. 24 for distribution the following day. The St. Vincent de Paul Society is providing turkeys with parishioners asked to donate the rest.
Both Zanesville parishes will be collecting food for the holidays at Masses during the Thanksgiving period. The collection at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, 955 E. Main St., will be at the 10 a.m. Thanksgiving Mass while at St. Nicholas Church, 144 N. 5th St., will take place at Masses on the weekend of Nov. 21 and 22 and in its office from Nov. 23 to 25.
St. Vincent Family Services is collecting donations to support Thanksgiving meals for approximately 100 families and clients in its care, said Carson Firestone of St. Vincent. It also is running its annual Adopt A Family program, in which families or individuals receive information on a needy family, shop for items on the family’s wish list, wrap and label the gifts and deliver them to the St. Vincent Family Center on a specified time and date. This year’s delivery dates will be Thursday and Friday, Dec. 5 and 6.
To apply as a gift giver, go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/AdoptAFamily2024. Monetary gifts may be made at any time online at www.svfs.ohio.org or sent to St. Vincent Family Services, 1490 E. Main St., Columbus, Ohio 43205.
The Scioto Catholic Community will serve dinner from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day at the Holy Redeemer Activity Center, 1325 Gallia St., Portsmouth. Carryouts will be available for those unable to attend.
The Lancaster Basilica of St. Mary of the Assumption, 132 S, High St., will collect nonperishable food and toilet items at its 9 a.m. Thanksgiving Day Mass to benefit the parish food pantry.
Columbus St. Christpher Church, 1420 Grandview Ave., in partnership with Trinity Catholic School on the parish grounds, is sponsoring a food drive to support the Mid-Ohio Food Collective.
Columbus Christ the King Church, 2777 E. Livingston Ave., is conducting a novena to Christ the King through Saturday, Nov. 23. Its annual parish awards will be presented the following day at its 10 a.m. English and 12:30 p.m. Spanish Masses and will be followed at 1:30 by a celebration of the Feast of Christ the King at All Saints Academy on the parish campus. Thanksgiving Day Masses will be at 8:30 a.m. (English) and 10 a.m. (Spanish).
Its sister parish, Columbus St. Thomas the Apostle, 2692 E. 5th Ave., will have a Thanksgiving Fellowship Sunday at 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 17 (for parish members only) and a Mass in English at 8:30 a.m. Thanksgiving Day.