This week we’re hearing from Vicar Daniel Hess of Rural Retreat Lutheran Parish on the congregation’s recent “All but the Turkey” feeding event hosted for the Thanksgiving holiday last week.
The East Highland Youth Group and the Parishes they are a part of, Rural Retreat Lutheran Parish, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, and Walker Mountain Lutheran Parish, came together this Thanksgiving to collect, assemble and distribute the “All but the Turkey” Thanksgiving meal bags. The bags were handed out at both the Lutheran Minnick School in Wytheville and through Katie’s Pantry, a free food pantry ministry outside of Grace Lutheran in Rural Retreat. The bags that were distributed included mashed potatoes, stuffing, yams, several types of vegetables, gravy, cornbread, homemade cookies, cranberry sauce and gift cards to the local grocery store to pick up a turkey.
The bags provided everything needed for a wonderful Thanksgiving day meal, short of friends and family gathered around. The idea came from a youth in the East Highlands youth group who suggested the idea as a way to give back this year. Members of all the churches quickly became excited about the idea and came together to bring donations, collecting enough food to create 38 bags and $225 worth of gift cards to be handed out the week before Thanksgiving.
