Nov 23, 2007

Homebound get meals from volunteers

By Melanie Carroll / Daily News Staff Writer

About two weeks ago Annika Lewis decided she wanted to feed the hungry on Thanksgiving.

She asked fellow coaches and swimmers in the Mountain View Masters Swim and Social Club for input and brainstormed with her life coaching group.

What started as an effort to serve meals to 50 homebound seniors and families, grew to 59 in addition to giving away 30 uncooked turkeys to the needy.

"I started calling people and asking about who to feed," Lewis said.

Lewis, 42, also found volunteers and people willing to give money. The donors contributed about $2,000 to the cause.

The Palo Alto-based real estate agent teamed up with the Mountain View nonprofit Community Services Agency, Whole Foods and 10 volunteers who gathered Thursday morning to deliver bags filled with warm Thanksgiving meals.

The 59 food-filled Whole Foods bags, which the grocery store sold to the volunteers for $20 each, contained mostly the standard Thanksgiving fare, including small pumpkin pies, sparking apple juice, green beans, stuffing and gravy -- but had chicken in place of turkey. Whole Foods also donated $500 worth of items.

Volunteers packed the food into their cars along with GPS devices as they prepared to fan out to residences in Mountain View and surrounding towns.

"I'm doing it because it's the right thing to do," said volunteer Gail Dulude of Redwood City. "Annika is a rock star."

Dulude, who drove meals to the homebound, said she had never volunteered for anything before Thursday.

"It's the key to feeling good," Dulude said. "It makes me feel successful."

In San Mateo, hundreds of meals were served at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center. Samaritan House volunteers cooked up 300 turkeys over the last two weeks, said Kitty Lopez, the nonprofit's executive director. Some of the turkey meat was frozen in anticipation of Thursday's big meal.

Lopez said that although some diners can afford to make their own Thanksgiving meals, they enjoy the atmosphere and the socializing and decide to spend the holiday with their neighbors.

Ron Nichols, a staff member who was on hand to set up and tear down the afternoon event, said he's been participating for years because it gives him something to do and that he gets a lot out of it.

Twelve-year-old Junior Vara of San Mateo said he enjoyed the stuffing most of all as he waited to see if he held the winning ticket for a door prize.

At the next table, 90-year-old Mattie Walker of San Mateo reached for a piece of pumpkin pie with whipped cream on top, saying she used her walker to get to the feast she's attended on and off for 10 years.

Walker said she prefers eating at the community center because she doesn't like to cook, in part due to a bad back.

"I'm glad to be alive," the 30-year resident of San Mateo said. "I don't believe in Thanksgiving. Every day is Thanksgiving."

E-mail Melanie Carroll at
mcarroll@dailynewsgroup.com.