Thanksgiving at Good Shepherd

(Updated)

Hope you’ve all enjoyed your Thanksgiving weekend. Of course for some people, Thanksgiving Day is just another day without food or shelter.

But thanks to the Good Shepherd — hundreds who might otherwise go without, were treated to a home cooked meal and some good company.

Volunteers at the Good Shepherd served up a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, complete with all the trimmings to hundreds of people in Hamilton. For some, the shelter and those who run it have provided much more than a meal.

Dale MacNevin, dinner guest: “They bestowed in me a lot of things. They gave me a reason to not just live but to want to live. There’s a lot of people here that will tell you the same thing.”

Alan Whittle, the Good Shepherd: “Yes, they come because they are hungry. But this is a chance for them to be with other people. In fact, what is Thanksgiving — about but being with other people and being thankful for what you have in life”

Many of them don’t have a lot. Some sleep on the streets, others lucky enough to get one of the more than 500 rooms the shelter has across the city. Officials say they usually serve about 400 people for Thanksgiving but this year the number has jumped by 25 per cent.

Alan Whittle: “It’s always a good thing if we can be there for people who need us. But it’s a bad thing if it’s a sign of a growing trend. I’m hoping it’s just an aberration — not part of a bigger trend in the community.”

It really is like a community at the Good Shepherd. One couple told me they had been having Thanksgiving dinner there for 20 years. Very heart warming.