Popular Posts

Saturday, December 17, 2016

Annual Needy Dinner Sees Record Crowd

OCEAN CITY – Workers and volunteers at The Original Greene Turtle in Ocean City fed nearly 260 community members in need Tuesday evening at its “Feed our Friends” dinner, setting a new record for the annual event.

Through the partnership of the Worcester County Health Department, Diakonia and Shepherd’s Crook Food Pantry, Greene Turtle officials were able to locate and invite individuals for a warm meal from 5-7 p.m., or until every person was served.

Jackie Lensch, health educator with the health department, said her involvement with the function began years ago through her boyfriend, a general manager at the restaurant, and she has since used her work connections to help support the dinner.

“It’s our way to give back to the community,” Lensch said. “It’s a little pick-me-up for them.”

More

3 comments:

  1. Sadly I fail to see what there is to celebrate when you have a "record crowd" of people who are in need of a meal

    It is a nice event, but really, the fan fare is a bit much. Lets celebrate the record number of homeless and people who can not afford to feed themselves?

    ReplyDelete
  2. This may seem cold and cruel, but I seem to really doubt that there are that many people in this area that are in that dire a need for a one-day handout meal.
    I truly doubt that anyone that lives in this county - in this state - that is so down on their luck that they have to resort to going to a public event for a free meal handout.
    I would think - I would hope - that it would take no more than one phone call to a State administration office to get immediate assistance in this matter.
    If I am wrong, then I sincerely hope that along with that free dinner a list of organizations and County departments that could help the situation these people/families are in is given to them.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 12:01 -
    Yes and no on cold and cruel.
    There is more than a handful of homeless and truly needy in Ocean City that certainly deserve a special free dinner due to their sad situation. God bless the Green Turtle for doing that.
    But 260? I doubt it.
    For thirteen years I was on the serving line at the Bea Gaddy Dinner - a traditional Baltimore Thanksgiving and Christmas event.
    I saw this event go from feeding a few hundred down-and-out homeless people, to feeding thousands of people each holiday.
    In the early days I even ran a transportation service bringing the homeless to the event.
    Then the atmosphere changed. I noticed that many families were coming in taxicabs. Many of the kids were wearing sneakers that even my working daughter-in-law could not afford to buy for her kids.
    It basically just turned into a free food day.
    Today I simply work through my church to assure that truly needy families get help and maybe something a little special during those holidays - Again, good for the Green Turtle for doing this. Hopefully they can follow up and make sure that this gesture is more of a hand UP than just a handout.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.