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The Voice of Seguin Today
Volume 55 • Number 224 830 • 379 • 2234
Free OLG Thanksgiving feast Cancelled By Cindy Aguirre-Herrera
(Seguin) – The silver anniversarybells will not be ringing this year for the city’s largest Thanksgiving Day feast. Coordinators of the annual Our Lady of Guadalupe Church annual Thanksgiving meal say unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has cancelled this year’s tradition. Gloria Reyna, the director of religious education at OLG, says this year would have marked 25 years for the meal which is served up by high school confirmation students. Each year, the feast is provided for free on the Wednesday before the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Reyna says together, the students cook up and serve hundreds of meals for those in need including Seguin’s elderly and homebound. “We have served up to 1,500 plates so it’s a large gathering and so that’s why I say it was a very difficult decision to make because it involved a lot of people and so because of that and because of the risk of the COVID, we just can’t take that chance. It’s too many students, too many family members that are involved and we don’t want to have that risk passed on to the people who come by to pick up plates,” said Reyna.
Area youth will not be stepping into the kitchen this Thanksgiving holiday as part of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church Thanksgiving meal for the community. The event has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Reyna says it’s disappointing not only for the community but also for the youth who give of their time during their holiday break. “Our students every year, they have to earn service hours for the year for their confirmation and this is one of the big projects that we have for them. It’s a way to serve the community and also serve the church by serving its people. But early on when I talked
to Father David (Tonary), I told him that I wasn’t sure if we should have it and he also agreed because of the imminent risk of the kids having to gather together. It’s kind of hard to distance because they are all helping to cook and fix the dressing and having parents there and sponsors. That’s a large group even if we distance in the parish center, it would be really risky. It’s unfortunate that we have to do that but it’s just to keep our students
safe and their parents and their families because it’s family based. It’s not just the kids themselves. We have families here with them. Our teachers are there of course, then we would have people come into pick-up. There’s just too many people to keep everyone safe,” said Reyna. Despite being forced to cancel this year’s Thanksgiving Day feast, Reyna says the group is optimistic of returning to the tradition next year. “We are counting on it. We are all praying for all of this to be over soon and that we can get back on track. We already have plans for next year and hopefully, we will be back and the community will come back and enjoy these plates again because I think it’s a really good thing for our students to do when they take part and see how much they are contributing to the people that come to our church, who live in the community and so, the amount of well being is so important and I hope that we get back again next year and we’ll celebrate our 25th. Even though there is a gap, we are still going to call it our 25th anniversary,” said Reyna. Reyna is asking that people in the community reach out and help pass on the news about the meal cancellation to those who have made the feast a part of their holiday tradition. This year, community members are asked to perhaps do their part by safely dropping off a meal to someone in their neighborhood who is in need of or unable to enjoy a feast of their own.