PEORIA, Ill. — Volunteers at Peoria’s South Side Mission were busy on Monday making pies, cranberry sauce and rolls, and preparing them for delivery.
“A few additional things we do, then we get it all packaged up and ready to go Wednesday afternoon. And, then Thursday morning, we’ll have hundreds of volunteers show up to deliver meals around Central Illinois,” Mission Development Manager Rich Draeger said.
South Side Mission will deliver about 2,500 meals on Thanksgiving Day to shut-ins.
Draeger told WMBD’s “The Greg and Dan Show”, it’s an emotional experience for the recipients, but also the volunteers.
“The volunteers sometimes are the only people that the folks getting the meals will see…a lot of them are shut-ins or single folks. It’s emotional for both those delivering and especially the recipients, there’s no doubt about that,” Draeger said.
South Side Mission is also serving around 100 people at their in-house Thanksgiving meal on Thursday.
The deadline to volunteer or receive a meal on Thanksgiving has passed, but sign ups for Christmas meals are going on now.
“We duplicate the same things for Christmas. You can go to our website to get signed up,” Draeger said.
To learn how you can volunteer or donate to South Side Mission, click HERE.
