NORTHAMPTON — For a brief moment, the clanking of dishes and cacophony of voices stopped and the basement hall at Edwards Church was silent.
With closed eyes, one could almost forget the room was packed with people gathered for the annual Thanksgiving Day meal provided by MANNA Soup Kitchen. Now in its 11th year, the meal was expected to feed around 125 to 150 people and even more by delivery.
“Thank you for the strength you give us to cope with the not so good things we incur in our lives,” Carl Erickson said during an opening prayer. Erickson is the president of the MANNA Board of Directors. “We ask that with your help, this meal will nourish you spiritually and physically.”
To feed that many people, it takes more than 100 volunteers over three days to cook the necessary 250 pounds of potatoes and an equal amount of butternut squash as well as kale, gravy, stuffing and all the sides and desserts.
More than 30 turkeys, weighing an average of 19 pounds, also needed to be cooked for the dinner. Erickson said in previous years it required two days and two church kitchens to cook all the turkeys. For the last few years, however, MANNA has had some help from the kitchens at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
About 30 minutes before the meal was set to begin, more than two dozen volunteers moved back and forth between the kitchen and hall, making sure tables were set and dressed and that everything and one was in the right place. Out in the hallway, the line of guests waiting to take their seats at table reached the exterior door.
As the clock struck noon, diners were allowed in the hall to find their place at one of the 16 tables that filled the room. Some arrived wearing heavy coats and backpacks, while others used a sort of cart to wheel in their belongings. A few even arrived accompanied by animals, like Tyler Julius and his 6-month-old cat Blaze.
Julius said it was his first Thanksgiving in three years he hasn’t spent incarcerated and he almost didn’t make it after being arrested the night before. With the help of friends and his caring wife, however, Julius was able to sit around the table and enjoy his Thanksgiving meal.
Sitting next to him was his mother, Lee Ann Maslowski. She said she looked forward to the meal holiday put on by MANNA.
“They really make you feel like you are sitting at home,” Maslowski said. “This really hit the spot.”
Across the room from Maslowski and her son sat Marilyn Clare and Karen Jacques. The two women live in the same building and attended the meal together. Jacques said she can’t cook, so she attended last year’s meal and loved it.
“I love being around people. I don’t want to be in my apartment,” she said.
For Clare, this is the first Thanksgiving she has been in a wheelchair and wasn’t able to attend a meal at any of her daughters’ homes because they aren’t wheelchair accessible.
As guests to the church finished their meals, a three tables were filled with dessert options. For those who couldn’t make a decision or were too full from the meal, to-go containers were on hand to take a treat with them as well as a second helping of the Thanksgiving meal.
MANNA Soup Kitchen serves five meals a week in Northampton as well as the Thanksgiving and Christmas day meals. More information about the organization is available at www.mannasoupkitchennorthampton.org/.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.This story was updated on Nov. 24, 20 17 to correct information on how many meals a week are served by MANNA Soup Kitchen.