COLUMBUS, Ind. — Gratitude freely flows from Florence Boyd’s voice when she considers the volunteers at the recently re-opened America and Roby Anderson Community Center. They will be bring her and her disabled, adult son whom she cares for home-cooked Thanksgiving meals on Nov. 21, the Saturday before the holiday.
The kindness is a huge help for the 84-year-old Boyd, who struggles many days to stand long enough to cook a full meal.
“This means a lot,” Boyd said. “It really does. And I think all the people getting dinners should be very thankful.”
Anderson Center organizers estimate they could deliver 350 meals or more that day — traditionally a time that the center that has celebrated with an in-person, pre-holiday meal for a few hundred people gathered at its facility at 421 McClure Road in Columbus. Those meal volunteers and those at two local churches also will scrap all in-person dining in favor of turkey-and-trimming to go via masked and gloved delivery personnel.
The delivered meals are a way amid the COVID-19 pandemic to still serve those needing a meal for whatever reason — no relatives nearby, not able to prepare a traditional feast, struggling because of job loss or whatever else.
The churches, First Christian and Columbus Baptist, working alongside others, will deliver their meals on Thanksgiving Day. Most organizers expect their total meal reservations to top last year’s 1,753 served, including dine-in and delivery, among the three entities.
For more on this story, including how to order meals or how to assist, see Thursday’s Republic.
