Bayonne groups were working hard as the Thanksgiving holiday neared to make sure everyone who wanted to enjoy a meal on this special day would not be disappointed.
Everyone is welcome to a Thanksgiving Day at Friendship Baptist Church, 41-45 West 20th St., according to Pastor Gene Sykes. Held in the church’s multipurpose room, participants will see the room as soon as they come in the front door.
From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the church will be doling out portions of the usual Thanksgiving fare, including turkey, ham, stuffing, pieces of pie and cake.
“Families, single people, anyone who needs to eat and wants to share a meal should come,” said Rev. Sykes. “Just bring a good appetite.”
The church has been offering the Thanksgiving Day meal for about 14 to 15 years, according to Sykes. Historically, about 100 people are fed.
“They just need to show up. All they need is to come on in,” Sykes said. “From anywhere in the world; just have a need to eat.”
Grace Lutheran Church in Bayonne is taking part in the holiday revelry as it joins four other Lutheran congregations in Jersey City to offer some Thanksgiving Eve joy.
The churches will be holding a special event at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 26, at Redeemer Lutheran Church, 37 Warner Ave., Jersey City, near the Bayonne border, between the Boulevard and Ocean Avenue.
“It will be a service and a pie fest and then we will be giving out frozen turkeys and food bags from the Ross store of New York City,” said the Rev. Gary Grindeland, pastor of Grace Lutheran in Bayonne. “We’ll be serving like 15 different pies. The public is invited.”
Rev. Grindeland said there is no registration for the event. Interested parties should just come to the service.
The group will also be donating 150 Ross bags to the Bayonne Economic Opportunity Foundation and 25 bags to the Windmill-Highways program for distribution.
Those seeking additional information should call Rev. Grindeland at (201) 339-3685.
The BEOF is holding its annual Community Thanksgiving Day dinner on Thursday, Nov. 27 with the help of the Bayonne Community Bank and the Bayonne Chapter of Unico. The event will run from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m., at the Back Bay Gardens, 535 Ave. A.
The dinner is for Bayonne residents who do not have anywhere to go for the holiday.
Free-of-charge tickets were required for this dinner and the deadline for reserving them was Friday, Nov. 21, so all attendees are already set for the occasion. There will be admission only with a ticket.
Heavily involved are Bayonne Unico President John R. Calcaterra, BEOF Executive Director Ana Quintela, BCB CEO and President Thomas Coughlin, and Michael Masone of Unico, the event chef.
The foundation donated hundreds of turkeys to the needy, according to Quintela.
“BEOF has had over 600 requests for turkeys this year,” Quintela said. “We have been lucky with donations and will be able to meet the demand.”
Quintela said the donators included the county of Hudson (200 turkeys), and CarePoint Health and GCT Bayonne (100 turkeys apiece). Among those making monetary donations for the turkeys were BCB, Councilman At Large Juan Perez, and the residents of Bayonne.
“Families, single people, anyone who needs to eat and wants to share a meal should come.” – Pastor Gene Sykes
____________
Highway Alliance
The Highway Alliance, a program of Windmills, had been gathering Thanksgiving meal staples for weeks, according to spokeswoman Kathy Feeley.
“We received 16 boxes of food from the Boy Scouts here in Bayonne,” she said. “We have people donating to us. Everybody’s been very helpful.”
The donations included all the trimmings for Thanksgiving, including vegetables, stuffing, cranberries, gravy, and potatoes.
“We belong to the Gleaning Project,” Feeley said. “We receive bakery goods and rolls and all the pies. We have been giving out the pies also.”
Clothing was also donated for the holiday.
City Hall helps
The city of Bayonne also sponsored a drive to provide turkeys and groceries to the less fortunate, offering a food-donation box in the Office on Aging at City Hall and at the circulation desk at the library. Canned goods and other nonperishable grocery items were collected.
Cookie’s Food Drive, the collection at City Hall, is named after the late Cookie Daughtrey, who organized the drive for many years.
Bayonne Initiative
The Bayonne Initiative also helped to make Thanksgiving brighter this year for needy families by running its own canned-food drive during November.
The group collected donations of nonperishable foods at its 174 Broadway center and distributed the goods to needy city families.
Joseph Passantino may be reached at JoePass@hudsonreporter.com.