- Video shows photos of past Thanksgiving committee events and visuals of meals being given out.
- One woman featured in the video has been receiving meals since the Thanksgiving feast began. She says it's something she looks forward to every year.
- Every year, President of the Delano Harvest Holiday Association gets the number of how many people are living in the Olson Rotary Village Retirement Home to plan ahead and set meals aside for them to ensure that everyone in the community is taken care of during the holidays.
Community organizers within the City of Delano working to set up their annual Harvest Holiday celebrations and various other future events.
Every year for the past five years, the Delano Thanksgiving Committee holds their annual Thanksgiving community meal held right here at Tony’s Firehouse Grill. Last year officials say they had close to 2,000 attendees and expect those numbers to increase. But , if you can’t come to the meals, fear not — the meals might just come to you.
“The favorite part of thanksgiving is when we’re all together in one place we can talk you know we can socialize and it’s nice to be with somebody,” said Resident at Olson Rotary Village Retirement Home Mercedes Santos.
Santos says she enjoys living alone as it allows her to be independent -- but even without a roommate, she never feels like she is alone.
Santos says she’s been receiving thanksgiving meals since she first moved in and is grateful knowing that her community includes her during the holidays.
“We used to cook meals and have everybody come in and when the pandemic came we were no longer to be in here,” said Manager for Olson Rotary Village Retirement home Cathy Gonzalez.
Gonzalez says the pandemic put a halt to their annual traditions. That is until President for the Delano Harvest Holiday Association Claribel Gutierrez reached out to provide further support.
“Every year now she calls me to ask me how many residents I have and we just give fliers out we let everybody know were gonna be here for a couple of hours on thanksgiving and then they come and the people that can’t come out — the residents then we’ll take them their meals,” said Gonzalez.
Gutierrez says with Delano seeing a rapid population growth over the past few years, the goal is to continue involving all members of the community adding, just because someone might not be able to attend doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be included.
“Were here to unify, elevate, and educate people on everything that Delano has to offer. As an international community we want to promote all,” said Gutierrez.
Chairmen for the Thanksgiving committee Art Armendariz says the committee originally started after two friends wanted to find a way to give back to their community during the holidays. Since then, the event has grown rapidly.
“People are hungry,” said Armendariz. “Some people don’t have a chance to celebrate and some people are lonely and so this is a time to break bread with people and make new friends with people.”
Armendariz says often times he’ll see people grab their meals and start volunteering immediately after. He says it’s this community connection that drives them to continue expanding this event.
As for Santos, she is counting down the days until she gets to spend quality time with her friends over a hot meal.
“Its really really nice and I’m looking forward to it every year for that,” said Santos.
Gonzalez says they have roughly 50 residents this year that will be getting a hot meal and is grateful to be apart of a community that cares for others. the thanksgiving community meal will be November 23rd at Tony’s Firehouse Grill at 502 County Line Road from 9 am until noon.
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