As families across the historic area sit down for their Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, there are those in need celebrating in a different way.
At the House of Mercy in Williamsburg, volunteers and employees are working to provide Thanksgiving meals to more than 1,300 individuals, said Shannon Woloszynowski, executive director.
This population comprises of 300 families, which are provided donated food to make their own Thanksgiving meals, including a turkey. Each year, the nonprofit gets about 50-75 volunteers to help with distribution around the holidays.
This year, volunteers will be distributing on Nov. 20-21. Students from Williamsburg Christian Academy also came out last week to help double-bagging the items and taking them to the Catacombs beneath the Chapel.
Thanksgiving with a smile
But some children at Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters don’t have the mobility to enjoy a relaxing dinner at home, said Bryan Sellitti, a certified child life specialist at the hospital. But just because they can’t have their pumpkin pie on the couch doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy their holiday.
“It’s very difficult for these families that have to be here, but all of us here at the hospital do a good job of focusing on family,” Sellitti said. “We all put families first here, we don’t treat kids here as just patients or medical record numbers.”
Some of the families bring the Thanksgiving food to the children. Despite having to enjoy their turkey from a hospital bed, Sellitti said families just appreciate the time together.
The hospital typically runs a canned food drive, but this year they have combined this program with their “Holiday Halo Fund.” This is a program that’s been at the hospital for a number of years and allows social workers there to identify needs of individuals and families and collect resources to address those needs through donations.
“Everybody on the staff gets involved on a personal level,” Sellitti said. “You’ll see physicians making fun of themselves and step out of their professional role and goof off, you’ll see surgeons cracking jokes with the kids and taking a few extra minutes just to listen to a child because sometimes that makes all the difference in the world.”
A new kind of family
For some of the women at Latisha’s House, this Thanksgiving will be their first sitting around a table with loved ones in a long time.
Latisha’s House is a nonprofit in Williamsburg that helps women who have escaped sex-trafficking by providing them a place to stay and teaching them life skills.
Every year, members of the community open their homes and offer a seat at their table for the holiday, but this year many of the women decided to stay together to celebrate.
“They consider each other family,” said Lauren Newell, project manager, event planner, and house liaison for Latisha’s House. “They like the tradition of cooking and laughing together, there’s a real sense of warmth.”
The women even take the turkey and baste it themselves.
A lot of them enjoy cooking and are pretty good at it, especially because the nonprofit offers classes to help women learn life skills such as cooking, Newell said
Most of the food is provided by community members and St. Martin’s Episcopal Church. Volunteers will come on Wednesday to help prepare some of the meal, but come Thursday the women will all look around the Thanksgiving table and see one thing: family.
