Sharing meals, serving others

BARSTOW • Sylvia Noble may have found herself a new Thanksgiving tradition.

While her husband has volunteered in the past with the annual Holiday Meals at the Barstow Senior Center, this was Noble’s first year helping out with a rapidly expanding Thanksgiving meal delivery program Thursday.

“This is my first time, and I’m so enjoying it,” said Noble, who helped assemble food boxes.

Noble was among more than 200 volunteers who filled the Barstow Senior Center for its Holiday Meals delivery program, which set an ambitious goal of preparing 1,000 delivery packages complete with turkey and the traditional fixings, hygiene products and a card designed by students from Barstow Unified School District for the disabled elderly, homebound and needy locals. Holiday Meals aimed to double its food deliveries this year, according to co-chair Mark Sielski, who said volunteers delivered 413 meals last Thanksgiving. Volunteers from the Barstow Police Department also helped deliver 200 of those meals to needy residents.

Another meal program that’s also grown this year is the annual Thanksgiving feast at Straw Hat Pizza, where residents can eat their fill — and even pack some leftovers — free of charge. Approximately 950 people filled their bellies with the Thanksgiving fare, which expanded this year to include choice items like spare ribs, chicken alfredo and gelato, according to Jeff Eason, Straw Hat owner and vice president of the Barstow Police Activities League. PAL hosted the event.

Eason credited local businesses and groups including Los Domingos, Sundance Roofing, Barstow Station and Barstow Community College for providing both the donations and manpower to make it possible, for example, to cook, carve and plate 34 whole turkeys.

Barstow resident John Alonzo said he would have spent Thanksgiving alone had he not come out to Straw Hat Thursday.

“They were so generous — they wanted me to come back for seconds,” said Alonzo, 59.

Both Eason and Sielski agree that they’ve seen a lot more need due to the bleak economy this holiday season.

In the final week leading up to Holiday Meals, Sielski said he got 85 calls for delivery requests. Within 20 minutes of opening, Straw Hat already seated 300 diners.

The Thanksgiving volunteer tradition highlights “the great way that the people of Barstow come together to help their fellow Barstonians,” said Sielski, who noted the wide cross-section of volunteers ranging from Boy Scouts to college students to longtime local residents.

“Young people and kids learn that they can’t take things for granted,” Sielski said.

And if the past is any indication of what’s ahead, said Eason, the Thanksgiving meal event will only grow in the future.

“It just turned into an outreach and got bigger every year,” he said.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4122 or elee@desertdispatch.com