It may seem like a long way off, but Thanksgiving is coming up soon, and as we have announced previously, St. John has been given the unique and powerful gift as the new lead support organization for the annual Thanksgiving in the Park. For more than 30 years, hundreds of volunteers from every church and organization in Naples has been providing a Thanksgiving meal for thousands of individuals and families in Immokalee. This effort will require our entire Parish Family to join in this wonderful service event. In particular, here are the tasks St. John has been asked to specifically contribute to:
- Wednesday, November 25th: Preparation Day – From 8AM to 6PM in the St. John Ballroom, we will need volunteers in shifts of 2 hours each to prepare the food for serving when it is shipped to Immokalee. This will include shredding the turkeys, placing mashed potatoes into pans, washing cutting boards, cleaning up from the shredding, and other tasks. Volunteers should bring their own knives for the turkeys and be able to stand for their shift so they can shred the dozens of turkeys we will have to break down. Additionally, we will need volunteers to receive the frozen, thawed turkeys and pies both at the church and at our Ballroom, as well as to take the prepared food to the refrigerated truck for storage. For those with food service licenses and experience, we are also looking for Kitchen Leaders. Please contact me at [email protected] or 239-566-8740 if you are interested in taking any of these shifts: 8AM, 10AM, 12PM, 2PM, 4PM, or 6PM
- Thursday, November 26th: Thanksgiving Day – Volunteering for cooking and serving the food has been primarily handled, but if we have members of our Parish Family that would like to be there, please contact Guadalupe Center Megan Becker at 239-657-7711, or email [email protected].
- Friday, November 27th: Cleanup Day – A small crew of 8-10 volunteers will be needed at the St. John kitchen to perform the cleanup of all cooking items, along with storage of those items for next year. This task should take about 3 hours. Please contact me if you are interested in helping with this task as well.
We will be feeding thousands of people in gratitude and thanksgiving, so please join in this amazing service opportunity.