CLICK HERE if you’re viewing on a mobile device.
Instead of the sound of plates and utensils clanging in a crowded banquet hall, tire squeals and trunks opening, being loaded and then shut could be heard in the parking garage of the Downtown Oakland City Center Marriott on Tuesday in a pandemic-proof rendition of a Town tradition known as the Community Day of Thanks.
Dozens of volunteers buzzed in assembly lines to pack and give away 3,500 meals — an increase from 2,000 meals in years past — to residents in drive-throughs and walk-up stations and to food pantries across the city. Once the meals were prepped, the volunteers also handed them out from wagons they pulled by hand around the southwest end of Lake Merritt around noon.
Though its format differed from the usual in-person dinner organized through the city’s Hunger Program, the 30th annual event thrived on donations as it always has: $26 paid for one meal for one guest this year while $104 fed a family of four. Founded in 1985 during the mayoral administration of Lionel J. Wilson, the Hunger Program now housed in the city’s Department of Human Services has served residents year-round since and provides Thanksgiving holiday dinners to low-income families, seniors and the unsheltered since 1991.
“We are grateful to the many volunteers who generously donate their time and resources to this wonderful event,” said Sara Bedford, director of Human Services. “The pandemic created enormous isolation and food insecurity. This day brings us together – safely – to share a holiday meal and remind ourselves of the power and joy of coming together as a community.”