This Thanksgiving when hundreds of homeless and needy people gather at the Salvation Army soup kitchen in Huntsville, Alabama, they will be treated to more than just a hot holiday meal.
Artists Vicki Garner and Natasha Nashadka collaborated with others in a three-month project to paint a 350-square-foot mural illustrating Jesus Christ feeding the 5,000.
“Many of the homeless have told us how inspiring it was just to look at the mural while they ate and how the painting lifted their hearts,” Nashadka explained. “I felt we were bringing some beauty to people who have very little beauty in their lives,” Garner added.
Vicki and Natasha are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and like hundreds of others in congregations across the United States are participating in community service to mark the Thanksgiving holiday.
Members like Amy Haaland in Indiana, who knit over 60 winter hats for people who needed a little extra warmth this season. She downplays the hours of service she gave to help some of her neighbors this winter.
“The hats don’t take much time to knit, and I know they are going to a worthy cause,” she said.
For more than 30 years, members in a Salt Lake City neighborhood have participated in an annual turkey drive, collecting funds and frozen turkeys to be distributed to the local food bank.
In Colorado, Mormons joined with Methodists, Catholics, Presbyterians and other Christians to hold a concert to raise money so food could be purchased for needy families in their city. In other parts of the state, members canned pinto beans for a local cannery, gathered winter clothes for families and assembled 400 care packs for needy families in the city.
Another congregation in Illinois, assembled care packages to send to military personnel stationed in Iraq.
Marv Evans, director of Church public affairs in Chicago, says there’s a reason why Mormons reach out to others at this time and throughout the year.
“We try as individuals, as families and as communities to do what Christ did when He was on the earth — that is, to serve and lift the lives of others.”