By CAROLYN TOKUNAGA
Centenary United Methodist Church’s Thanksgiving Dinner Community Project has been delivering traditional turkey dinners to the residents of Little Tokyo for over 30 years.
Originally it was a tradition conceived by Rev. KarenFay Ramos-Young as a youth outreach project with a focus on delivering meals to single-resident households and to those who would not otherwise have a special meal for Thanksgiving. Those original youth are now adults and continue to participate in the meal preparation as this project has evolved into an annual all-church multi-generational gathering of cooks and helping hands.
This year, 27 volunteers from Centenary UMC and 14 from Faith UMC Torrance joined together to prepare the food on Wednesday, Nov. 27.
With 41 volunteers in the kitchen, the place was bustling as mashed potatoes were prepared from scratch and pumpkin square ingredients were mixed and baked. The 10 turkeys cooked and donated by Centenary families were sliced and prepared for the Thanksgiving meals. Stuffing was assembled.
The Centenary Fellowship Hall was abuzz with activity as yams with pineapple, cranberry sauce with orange zest, gravy, and canned corn were proportioned and placed in individual containers and readied for the next morning.
On Thanksgiving Day, 25 Centenary volunteers gathered at 7 a.m. to pack the 90 dinners that would be shared with the community. By 10 a.m., dinner bags were loaded onto carts and the group walked the streets of Little Tokyo delivering meals to the residents of Little Tokyo Towers, the Firm Building, and the Little Tokyo Hotel.
Smiling faces greeted the volunteers as the recipients were given the meal of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, cranberry sauce, corn, gravy, and pumpkin squares. Sign-ups had occurred earlier during the month.
A detour was taken to Fukui Mortuary to give meals to staff working on that day in appreciation of their contribution to the community.
Thanksgiving meals from Centenary to the people in Little Tokyo extend feelings of love and care to those who may not be able to share this traditional feast with family. Centenary thanks all of the donors and volunteers who make this project possible, to Michele Nagata, who coordinates all of the many parts, and to those recipients who allow us to share God’s blessings and bounty.
Go to https://bit.ly/2024ThanksgivingDinners to see this year’s video of the Thanksgiving Dinner Community Project.