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Gerald Champagne (left) and other volunteers separate smoked turkeys into light and dark meat in preparation for Southside Community Center’s free Thanksgiving feast on Friday at the activity center. Ashley Landis
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Ruben Garza prepares green beans in the small Southside kitchen on Friday afternoon. Ashley Landis
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Community a winner with free turkey dinners
A Southside Community Center Thanksgiving feast
It’s Thanksgiving and everyone’s invited.
Southside Community Center sent out an open invitation to anyone in San Marcos for a traditional Thanksgiving feast at the Activity Center Friday night.
Thousands come to the event every year to share a meal, and the preparation behind it is almost as spectacular as the feast itself.
“We have stuffing, we have cobbler, we have pies, cakes, brownies,” Ruben Garza, the founder of the feast and Southside’s executive director, said. “I still have to do green beans, mashed potatoes and there’s gravy around here somewhere, but I don’t know where.”
About 250 volunteers streamed in and out of Southside and the activity center throughout the day on Friday, readying 40 smoked turkeys, 250 quarts of salad, 2,000 servings of salad dressing, dozens of gallons of green beans, 30 pans of stuffing and everything necessary for a traditional holiday meal.
“The green beans have to have butter on them and salt and pepper,” Garza said while rushing around the Southside kitchen, which is just about wide enough for one person.
“There are eight pans (of stuffing) cooking here, one upstairs, one over at the shelter, one at a neighbor’s house, four more at the activity center,” Garza said.
Containers covered in plastic wrap, foil and large aluminum cans streamed in and out of the doors while Garza took stock of what still needed to be done on Friday afternoon.
“One year we forgot to make gravy. Sometimes you forget things, but thankfully, Luby’s stepped in and brought the gravy,” Garza said. “We thought, ‘Oh well, we don’t need gravy,’ but it turns out that’s a very important part of Thanksgiving.”
He started the free dinner 25 years ago when it was just him and volunteer Ralph Gonzales. Three hundred people came that year. Last year more than 1,500 people came, and they expected more than 2,000 on Friday.
“Before, people were given turkeys and the people donating didn’t really know if the turkeys were getting eaten,” said Garza. “I thought, ‘All these people should see where their money is going.’”
He said it’s turned in to an annual responsibility that’s grown in to something he didn’t expect.
“It’s great to see the older people, the shut-ins reunited with their families,” Garza said. “If I didn’t do it, it’d be a real tragedy.”
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