Soup kitchen, USO prepare to feed crowds

Nonprofit organizations in Jacksonville are expecting record turnouts for Thanksgiving dinner today. But they say the extra mouths to feed won’t be a problem: There’s enough to go around — with all the trimmings.

The Onslow Community Outreach Soup Kitchen and the Jacksonville United Service Organization (USO) traditionally open their doors at mid-morning for a special Thanksgiving repast, complete with turkey, dinner rolls and pumpkin pie. But this year, some coordinators say that turnout may nearly double this year, because of the economic squeeze many individuals and families are feeling.

“I know we are feeding more this time,” Remy Stitt, the Onslow Community Outreach Soup Kitchen director, said. Stitt will be at the kitchen at 5:30 a.m. this morning to prepare a dinner that will include yams, corn, stuffing and rolls, as well as turkey and dessert.

She said she expects 60 to 100 people to turn up at the kitchen for a free holiday meal, in addition to the two trucks, laden with 250 hot meals each, that will make deliveries in the community. Since Stitt has noticed an increase in the people who come for daily meals from around 60 to 120 or 125, she expects a similar swell in Thanksgiving guests.

At 10:45 a.m., she and 28 volunteers open the kitchen. And, she said, there were so many people who wanted to help that she had to turn some away.

“I have a lot of people that want to come, but I have enough already,” Stitt said.

At the USO, center director Gia Wagner spent the earlier part of the week getting ready to accommodate a crowd of thousands of hungry troops. Every year, base officials and retired military help to prepare the mid-morning dinner, Wagner said.

And though last year 2,200 people sat down to a Thanksgiving feast, Wagner said she expects up to 400 more today.

“Due to the economy, everyone who’s not going home, it will be their first thought,” she said,

Camp Johnson and Camp Geiger will donate their ovens to cook the turkeys, while everything else will be made in the USO kitchens.

Wagner said that, not only did she feel certain that the corporate sponsors and donors had supplied enough food that no one would be hungry, but she had chosen to forgo the center’s usual holiday appeal to local businesses.

“In years past, the previous center directors sent out a letter requesting monetary assistance from the local communuity,” she said. “I chose not to do that this year, because I’m confident with my own ability to attain the funds.”

Rather than ask for donations for holiday meals and programs, she said, she will ask businesses to contribute for rack packs, or gift packages for Marines and sailors returning from deployment including hygiene and comfort essentials and basic needs for their first few days at home.

“I think it would be easier for a town like Jacksonville, a military communuity, to give up money for that,” Wagner said. “(The rack packs are) a better way to take care of the active duty community specifically.”

But this morning, she will be up at 5 a.m., beginning the long day by cooking breakfast for the 150 volunteers who will come to help serve dinner.

“The USO logo is, ‘till they all come home,’” Wagner said, “but on Thanksgiving it will be, ‘till they all go home.’”

Contact Hope Hodge at 910-219-8453 or hhodge@freedomenc.com.