Thanksgiving will be marked by large gatherings across the Southland to feed the homeless, homebound seniors and those in need.
Actors Dick Van Dyke and Ed Begley Jr. are expected to be among more than 300 volunteers serving Thanksgiving brunch at The Midnight Mission to thousands of homeless or nearly homeless men, women and children. Food bags and donated clothing will also be distributed.
"Of the many services The Midnight Mission provides to our unique community, one of the most important is the sense of family we offer to those who often feel lost and forgotten during the holidays and other days of celebration,'' said Georgia Berkovich, the mission's director of public affairs.
Volunteers from Independence at Home will help prepare about 2,400 meals for homebound seniors in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties. The Long Beach-based organization, which provides services for seniors and disabled adults, has been delivering Thanksgiving meals to seniors since 1992. The meals include turkey dinners with all the trimmings, with handmade cards from local schoolchildren.
The Fred Jordan Mission on Skid Row will hold its annual Thanksgiving banquet, serving more than one ton of turkey, topped by 80 gallons of gravy, to homeless people and working families who can't afford to cook a Thanksgiving dinner, organizers said.
The meal will also include 585 pounds of green beans, 560 pounds of candied yams, 500 pounds of mashed potatoes, hundreds of pounds of traditional cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce, 400 pumpkin pies and 220 gallons of fruit punch.
About 5,000 Thanksgiving dinners are expected to be served to adults and families experiencing homelessness and poverty, senior citizens and those who are alone or unable to afford a holiday meal at Union Station Homeless Services' Dinner-in-the-Park at Central Park in Pasadena, continuing a tradition that began in 1972.
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More than 2,000 people will be served turkey dinners at the 28th annual free Community Thanksgiving Day dinner for the area's homeless and low-income families at Guadalupe Community Center in Canoga Park.
