Thanksgiving out at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church on Northeast 119th Street was just plain fun.
“We want it to be a party atmosphere,” said organizer Carolyn Carpio of Ohana Farms, which put on the free feast for about 160 guests. “We want to celebrate. We do have so much to be thankful for.”
“Unbelievable,” said Kelly Jo Barkley, who didn’t just enjoy turkey and garlic potatoes and gravy and pie after a free van ride from Esther Short Park. She also danced and spun along with a cakewalk in her wheelchair. A downtown friend danced after her, helping keep Barkley’s chair on track and telling her what number she’d landed on. He was rewarded with a win himself, and gleefully carried off a tray of homemade muffins like they were gold.
“The whole thing is, these volunteers are awesome,” said Barkley, who lives somewhere around downtown Vancouver’s old library building. “Look what they’re doing for us.”
It wasn’t just food and sweets and a carefree good time for a change — it was also extra food bags for the road, free haircuts and gently used clothing, packages of brand-new socks and plush toys for the children. (Hundreds of pairs of socks reportedly were amassed by a 4-year-old philanthropist named Emmett, who was napping when a reporter visited the church.)
“Instead of herding them like cattle, we want them to sit down and feel dignity like they would at home,” said head chef Geoff Sainsbury.
Sainsbury and the extended Carpio family used to put on this same free Thanksgiving event in Orchards at their cafe, Da Kine’s, but last year they decided to close the place and focus on Ohana Farms, their family and community farm in Brush Prairie. There was no question about continuing the Thanksgiving meal for those in need, though; they just had to find a new location. Their own church was the natural answer. So many eager volunteers wanted to help, Carpio said, some had to be turned away. Those who couldn’t volunteer donated many pies, she added.
Da Kine’s Cafe was on a bus line; St. John’s Catholic Church is not. So C-Tran’s offer of bus passes wasn’t useful, Carpio said, and no other church or institution she tried had a vehicle to volunteer. It was a private person, a Portland friend named Minh Noah Toung Yano, who came through with his own private van and shuttled people between the Glenwood-area church and downtown Vancouver all day.
Carpio choked up while talking about visiting downtown to distribute donations to poor people.
“I can’t believe what I see out there,” she said. “This is our country, and yet — I go downtown and my heart just breaks. I could be in the line. I’m not any better than anyone else.
“We come from Hawaii, where we say Ohana (family),” said Carpio, looking around at the festivities and fun. “This is Ohana. That’s what it is.”
Minus Chronis’
Where downtown’s homeless, poor or simply lonely would go for Thanksgiving has been a question mark in recent weeks because the most popular and beloved free Thanksgiving in town has closed. Chronis’ Restaurant and Lounge shut its doors in April after 48 years in business and 30-plus years serving a free Thanksgiving meal; also, the Eagles lodge on Seventh Street is undergoing kitchen renovations now, so no traditional Thanksgiving breakfast was served there.
A couple of bars and diners on lower Main Street were open for business during the day. Share House, the west-side homeless shelter, served a free Thanksgiving meal in its cafeteria at 3:30 p.m. And the Proto-Cathedral of St. James the Greater — which offers a free Frassati dinner every Thursday — started serving Frassati Thanksgiving dinner at 5 p.m.
What’s Frassati? Pier Giorgio Frassati was an Italian social activist devoted to the poor, volunteer and organizer Mike Sortors said. A layman, Frassati died in 1925 and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1990.
Sortors said many of the approximately 200 people who show up at the cathedral on Thursdays aren’t homeless — they’re local senior citizens who come for the company. Sortors likes hanging out with them and hearing their stories, he said.
“We serve them like it’s a restaurant,” Sortors said. “They’re greeted properly and a waiter or waitress takes orders. It’s all about dignity.”
