Payson parish provides Thanksgiving for 140

Intermountain Catholic

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Members of the San Andres Parish youth group fill boxes with the fixings for Thanksgiving dinner. See more photos on Facebook. IC photo/Marie Mischel

PAYSON — The annual Thanksgiving food drive at San Andres Parish is an event for the entire Payson community. While parishioners organize the event, gather the names of those in the area who are in need of a full Thanksgiving meal and purchase the turkeys, the business community donates funds for the birds and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Mountain View Stake provides all the fixings for the meal.

San Andres parishioners began the tradition about 25 years ago – no one is quite certain exactly of the exact year.

"It started with about five families and it’s worked its way up to about 150 now," said Ray Folks, who credits the women of the parish, including his wife, with founding the tradition.

Since the beginning, the parish’s Knights of Columbus Council has been responsible for collecting the turkeys, said Folks, who has held numerous positions with the Knights and is currently the council’s financial secretary. In the early days, the Knights also would deliver the Thanksgiving boxes, but as the numbers grew, the process changed so that now the recipients pick them up at the church.

Although 140 boxes were distributed this year, the parish has provided as many as 250 in the past, said Suzanne Vasquez, who has coordinated the drive for the past 10 years. "It may increase again" if there is the need in the community, she said. "We never know from year to year."

The Mountain View Stake got involved perhaps 10 years ago, said Wallace McCord, Mountain View Stake high council member, adding that the past and present stake presidents like to participate in community events and the Thanksgiving drive also provides a service project for their youth.

The LDS wards provide Thanksgiving meal fixings such as potatoes, cans of yams, green beans, cranberries and the makings for pumpkin pie. Youth from both the LDS and Catholic community sort the goods and box them. The Saturday before Thanksgiving, as those who receive the meals arrive, the youth also carry boxes and turkeys to the recipients’ cars.

So many people from the two churches began to help that the San Andres church gymnasium became too crowded to work in, Vasquez said. These days, participants are limited to members of the San Andres confirmation class with a few other helpers, and one adult and two youth from each LDS wards. These workers assemble the boxes and distribute them in less than four hours.

"It’s worked out wonderfully," Vasquez said. "When you see people come through … some of them are so grateful it brings tears to your eyes because they just didn’t know what they were going to do from year to year, especially if they have a young family. It’s very gratifying that way."

This year was the second that Eluney Peve, 15, has helped with the drive. She came out again this year "to help people that can’t afford food and stuff like that," said Peve, a member of San Andres youth group, adding that she feels sad when she eats the Thanksgiving meal with her family and thinks of those who receive the boxes "because we have like this huge feast and they don’t get that much."