Stepping up to the plate: Churches, school make sure everyone has a Thanksgiving meal

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, various Summerlin-area churches are gearing up to help the less fortunate throughout the city. Among them is Word of Life Christian Center, which has been putting together holiday dinner baskets for the past 30 years for its Thanksgiving Caring program.

Parishioners at the church, 3501 N. Buffalo Drive, donate food, and volunteers make up the baskets and deliver them across the Las Vegas Valley. Families are nominated for the program, and the church has helped as many as 90 families a year through the effort.

“It’s been a pleasure just to see the way the community comes together and the members come together to assist the people … not just to donate the food but to put the baskets together and then come together to actually deliver them,” said Robin Malmgren, pastor’s assistant.

Grace In the Desert Episcopal Church, 2004 Spring Gate Lane, began its Thanksgiving basket effort 10 years ago. It identifies recipients through the school system.

Susan Cooper, a volunteer at Grace, has been involved in the project for the past seven years. She said the baskets contain a frozen turkey, a pie, cranberry sauce, canned vegetables, potatoes and “all the fixings.” Cooper said those who preferred to donate funds gave $75 to cover the cost of one basket.

Parishioners donate nonperishable items throughout the year. The meat is one of the last things to be brought to the church.

“We ask them to keep the turkeys at home because we don’t have a huge capacity for storing them,” Cooper said. “We did 110 last year, and this time, we went, ‘Well, let’s try for 120.’ ”

At the International Church of Las Vegas, 8100 Westcliff Drive, Michelle Monts is one of the coordinators of the Thanksgiving dinner effort for those in need. In 2012, the 5,000-member church gave out roughly 800 gift baskets, complete with all the fixings.

Last year, it changed things and tasked its men’s and women’s ministry groups with providing the dinners to someone they knew personally. About 100 parishioners in those groups were able to provide meals for 50 families. For 2014, the church is changing things again. This year, it is inviting those in need to its facility to partake in a sit-down Thanksgiving meal. It expects to feed 500 people that day.

The church has numerous projects throughout the year that help others.

“We are a church that believes if we give, it’ll be given back to us,” Monts said. “The more of a blessing we are to other people, the more we receive. And I know in my life, personally, I’ve seen that happen over and over again.”

Mountain View Presbyterian, 8601 Del Webb Blvd., collects as many as 400 turkeys to distribute through various groups and nonprofits such as The Salvation Army.

“And we have two Presbyterian churches here in Las Vegas (that) have food pantries,” said June, an office worker at the church who asked that her last name not be used. “All of the people who do that are volunteers. … We contribute to the food pantries every month.”

Churches aren’t the only ones helping out. The Meadows School, 8601 Scholar Lane, hosts a Thanksgiving basket drive, organized by the school’s National Honor Society. This is the drive’s fifth year, with baskets and turkeys set to be donated through Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada. Each basket will have two turkeys, canned goods and other food items. Baskets are set to be delivered Nov. 21.

Also this holiday season, The Meadows School National Honor Society plans to adopt two families through Catholic Charities to provide toys and two baskets with food and items for the parents. The students plan to deliver the baskets to Catholic Charities and meet the families they are supporting.

For a list of other food banks and pantries operating across Clark County, visit tinyurl.com/nrqfwwv.

Contact Summerlin Area View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 702-387-2949.