Souls Harbour serves up Thanksgiving meal for hundreds

Souls Harbour Rescue Mission once again gave the gift of a Thanksgiving meal on Friday.

The group provides clothing and food year round to people in need and has been providing Thanksgiving meals for 12 to 15 years.

While Souls Harbour has been providing holiday meals for over a decade, this year was David Bird’s first.

“Sometimes we don’t have enough money to afford a meal like this. This month we probably wouldn’t have had a thanksgiving meal,” he said.

Destiny Goforth also attended the meal for the first time and was with her family. She said having these type of meals are important to the community.

“To show the community that everybody cares and you’re not forgotten and I feel pretty good about it,” Goforth said. “It made me feel nice.”

It takes over 100 volunteers every year to help cook and serve the meals.  This year was Donna West’s fourth year of volunteering for the annual Thanksgiving meal.

“It’s a blessing for me to just watch the families be able to get a meal,” West said. “Many of these families are unable to make a meal themselves for Thanksgiving and it’s just being able to say we want to be here to bless you.”

West runs a children’s outreach program and said one of the main reasons she comes back every year is to help provide meals for the kids.

For Maureen Lang, this year was her first year volunteering for the meal.

“We’re all part of the community so it’s really important for us to recognize that there is needs, not just in our own area but throughout the city of Regina and the province of Saskatchewan as well,” Lang said.

Thirty-eight turkeys, around 400 pounds of potatoes and about 200 pounds of vegetables went into the lunch this year.

After the meal, presents which included a wide variety of items, including a mug and crayons, were handed out.

“That’s like the cherry on top of everything. It just makes it a whole lot better for them I think. She didn’t eat the food but she got the candy bag,” Goforth said.

Souls Harbour has been in operation for 26 years and has served over 1.6 million meals.