Staff, volunteers prepare Siloam Mission’s annual Thanksgiving meal

Siloam Mission hosted its annual Thanksgiving meal on Friday, serving 700 hungry Winnipeggers at their Princess Street centre.

Staff and volunteers spent the day mashing 350 lbs. of potatoes, slicing 142 turkeys and plating up homemade sides, with pumpkin pie for dessert. Ninety per cent of the food is donated by individuals and partner organizations.

It’s the first big holiday meal Siloam has been able to host since the beginning of the pandemic. Communications Director Luke Thiessen is happy to be able to share food with the community again.

“Throughout the pandemic, it was difficult trying to recreate that celebratory atmosphere with so many fewer people,” he said. “It feels great to be able to have something that feels a lot more normal.”

Siloam starts planning for Thanksgiving two months in advance, all while feeding 1,500 people per day through their regular meals.

“We’re doing it simultaneously because we’re open seven days a week, three meals a day,” Foodservices Manager Marilou Castro said. “Time management is very important.”

Castro secures donations and preps anything that can be frozen as early as possible. Volunteers save leftover bread for the stuffing and make gravies and dressings from scratch.

“Nothing goes to waste in this kitchen,” Castro said.

One of those volunteers is Thomas Rempel-Ong. He has volunteered at Siloam Mission since 2019 and picked up extra hours when they put out a call for Thanksgiving volunteers.

“I’m always struck with a sense of perspective, being able to make these holiday meals for people who are struggling,” he said.

“My way of giving back is helping out here in the kitchen.”

Castro says the Thanksgiving lunch is Siloam’s most popular holiday meal of the year. Her priority is making sure no one who comes to Siloam Mission goes hungry.

“If you’re expecting 700 people, you want to feed everybody. You don’t want to run out. In my country, my mother always said to me, ‘If you don’t have any left over, it only means you don’t cook enough.’ So that’s our goal in cooking for 700 people today.”