By Thea Jarvis

St. Anthony’s Church in Atlanta’s West End, which offers free luncheon to an average of 150 homeless persons each weekday, expects to feed over 500 people at its annual Thanksgiving feast this year.

The holiday dinner, to be served Nov. 28 from 11:30 a.m. through the afternoon house, brings together volunteers from all over the archdiocese and those whose Thanksgiving would be one more experience of scarcity were it not for the parish meal.

“We baste so many turkeys you get tired of it,” laughed Agnes Engrisch, a 77-year-old St. Anthony’s parishioner who has helped prepare the Thanksgiving meal since it began under former pastor Father John Adamski over 10 years ago and is a faithful volunteer at the four-day a week lunch program.

“The ones who serve are from other churches,” she said allowing her to spend Thanksgiving with her own family.

The festive dinner, complete with turkey, dressing and cranberries, involves about 130 volunteers and additional contributions of money and food. In 1990, over 20 turkeys were cooked. This year, more may be needed.

“They may have a larger crowd because so many people have been laid off,” Mrs. Engrisch observed.

This year, St. Anthony’s parishioners have been asked by pastor Father Bruce Wilkinson to sponsor a Thanksgiving meal for a homeless person with a donation of five dollars.

“We’re asking parishioners to take a more active role, hoping people who have traditionally been here will offer financial help as well,” Father Wilkinson said, adding that people are needed to help prepare, set up, serve and clean up for the meal, to be held in the church cafeteria, Adamski Hall. Help is also welcome in delivering meals to shut-ins at Child’s High Rise, two blocks from the church.

Thanksgiving dinner this year is “definitely needed, more so at the moment,” said Father Wilkinson, who has been at St. Anthony’s for seven years. “Folks in the neighborhood have already been asking” about this year’s dinner, and “people have already made donations” to get things underway.

St. Anthony’s tradition of feeding the needy began about 15 years ago under the leadership of former pastor Father Eusebius Beltran, now bishop of Tulsa, and cathedral parishioner Frances Hynes, who initiated the daily lunch program.

Today, meals are served Tuesdays through Fridays from 12:15 until 1 p.m. Food is prepared from scratch, groceries are purchased with vouchers from St. Vincent de Paul, and many lunchers are those Mrs. Engrisch recognizes as “regulars.”

Preschool children and their mothers are among the luncheon guests, though most are men.

“One day we had 300 people,” Mrs. Engrisch said.

On a typical lunch hour a meal of meat patties, rice and turnip greens might be offered. If the kitchen runs out, servers use donations from Atlanta’s Table, which collects excess food from area restaurants to feed the hungry.

“We don’t throw anything away,” Mrs. Engrisch assured a listener. Any unused contributions the church receives for the Thanksgiving meal, including canned goods, desserts or turkeys, will be welcomed by lunch program coordinators.

On Thanksgiving and throughout the year, “It’s a good witness that we’re filling a basic need,” Father Wilkinson said. “I feel good that we’re recognized in the community for having an outreach to the hungry.”

To be a part of St. Anthony’s daily outreach to the hungry or the parish’s Thanksgiving dinner, call the church at 758-8861.