It’s hard to believe that the Care and Share Thanksgiving Meal at Royal Redeemer Lutheran Church, at the corner of Royalton and Abbey Roads, is celebrating its 30th year of serving others in the North Royalton community.
Back on Thanksgiving Day in 1989, Care and Share began with volunteers at Royal Redeemer serving 100 Thanksgiving dinners.
In 2019, volunteers are planning to serve 1,600 dinners on Thanksgiving Day, 400 to those who come to the Church for the meal and 1,200 who are shut-ins or prefer to take their meal home.
Lisa Martin is in charge of making the Care and Share event come together. “We are always blessed with so many volunteers.
Everyone helps out and it makes for a community serving so many! We have had people that come back every year and knowing we can depend on them makes it easy to run.”
Martin said Care and Share is the work of human hands and God’s hands. “I love that roughly 500 volunteers come together to do God’s work. I love seeing the faces of people when we are able to be with them and deliver a meal. I love knowing that someone who may not have anyone to be with on Thanksgiving has at least a meal along with a friendly person delivering it.”
Care and Share welcomes those who may have just moved to North Royalton or the nearby area and may not have any friends or family in the immediate family and want to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal in the company of others.
Dinner will be served in the Gathering Room at the Church between 1 and 4 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. If you will be homebound on Thanksgiving, don’t worry. Church members and volunteers will deliver a Thanksgiving meal to those not able to leave their house. Deliveries will start at 11 a.m. and will be completed by 1 p.m.
When volunteers drop off the meal, they will share a prayer with those who are receiving the meal and will spend a few minutes talking with them.
Carryout dinners will be available at Royal Redeemer Church beginning at 1 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.
The food menu is Turkey, white or dark, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, gravy, green beans, a roll, apple sauce, cranberry sauce and Pie. The church also sends 200 full grocery bags out that have been donated by people at Royal Redeemer.
Volunteers start cooking the turkey breasts in the middle of the night on Tuesday. They are planning to prepare 850 pounds of turkey breast bone in and 10 whole turkeys for some dark meat. Martin said, “Frozen turkey donations are always in need and can be dropped off on Friday, November 23, anytime between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.” Lisa thanks the Giant Eagle in North Royalton for “giving them a great price and for defrosting the turkeys that we purchase.”
If you would like to make a monetary donation to help with the Care and Share Thanksgiving Dinner or to make a reservation for a Thanksgiving Dinner, call Royal Redeemer Lutheran Church at 440-237-7958.
By JOE JASTRZEMSKI
Contributing Writer