St. Francis Lutheran Church Says- Thank You Duboce Triangle!

The St. Francis Lutheran Church would like to thank the Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association for your generous financial support of our annual Thanksgiving Day Dinner for the neighborhood. The dinner was a tremendous success! With the combined efforts of 50 volunteers from the parish and from the neighborhood, the church fed approximately 275 people.

As is our custom, guests were treated as though they had entered a family restaurant with four star cuisine. "I want everyone who comes to feel doted on from the minute they arrive!" ordered our volunteer Maitre de. So doted on they were. The mood was buoyant and the ambience festive. Child volunteers made individually designed place-mats with Thanksgiving greetings for each guest. Decorative arrangements of flowers and folk-art turkeys adorned the tables. Elders, university students, homeless people, parishioners and folks who couldn't or didn't want to travel or cook at home came and enjoyed their dinner. Some got up from the table and stayed to volunteer for the next shift of people who were hungry for good food and good company.

One year, a foster Dad with two sons from troubled homes arranged for some of his foster sons' family members to meet them at the church for dinner He knew that neither of the two boys had families that would be able to "get it together" to enjoy a family Thanksgiving on their own. But in a neutral space, without the stresses of food preparation or financial pressure, members of the boys' families were able to enjoy one another's company in the context of supportive community. Thanks to the efforts of this foster Dad, one foster son got to have Thanksgiving with his grandparents and his father, a man who had spent many of his Thanksgivings in jail. The other son got to share Thanksgiving with his mother, who while struggling with multiple addictions, managed to be present to her boy for a few hours. For this son, it was to be his last Thanksgiving with his mother. She died a few months later, having lost her battle with addiction but having managed in this meal to leave her son with one last memory of her love. These are the miraculous moments that can occur when people give from their hearts to total strangers.

We at St. Francis are proud to.be able to serve our neighborhood and are grateful for all who help us do so. Many thanks to the DTNA for your help! Join us again next Thanksgiving!