Stocking up for a festive Thanksgiving

Carlos Meekins, 75, sat down to rest in the lobby of South Camden's Neighborhood Center, a heavy bag of groceries at his feet.

"My wife's dead and gone," the Riverview Towers tenant said. "I'm going to try and cook the turkey myself."

A retired roofer's helper ("I was a kettle man for 25 years"), Meekins is among nearly 3,000 Camden residents for whom Thanksgiving might not happen this year without the center.

The faith-based nonprofit helped about 200 senior citizens and 500 five-member families fill bags with donated groceries and fresh food Tuesday. The center also expects to serve as many as 300 home-cooked dinners at noon Thanksgiving Day.

Dozens of churches in South Jersey and Southeastern Pennsylvania, and at least 100 volunteers from throughout the region, have been working since last week to ensure that Camden's needy men, women, and children will share in the holiday.

The center "has been here since 1913," said Michael Landis, a Haddonfield resident who became a volunteer 26 years ago and has been executive director since 2011. Day care, after-school, educational, cultural, and athletic programs are offered year round.

"Throughout our history," Landis added, "neighborly love is what we've been about."

The center has Methodist roots, and early on attracted support from Camden's titans of industry, including Eldridge Johnson. The Victor Talking Machine Co. magnate donated $65,000 to help build the Collegiate Gothic-style headquarters, a splendid sight in the forlorn landscape around Second and Kaighns.

As Thanksgiving preparations got underway, the atmosphere inside was festive. But outside, in the city, thousands upon thousands of people are barely getting by.

"We keep hearing that the economy is growing," said Landis, whose previous career was in corporate human resources. "I don't think it's growing for people at this level. Toward the end of the month, families are running out of food."

The center serves a hot lunch 365 days a year, and "most of the people who come here are working," noted chef Lou Wilson, a Methodist minister's son who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 2012.

"I'd like to think they come for my food. But they're working for minimum wage, and if I give them lunch, they save money to feed their families," added Wilson, 25, of Gloucester Township.

The chef baked 20 apple pies and 20 pumpkin pies, and roasted 15 turkeys, on Wednesday, when he also prepared herb stuffing and fresh cranberry-orange sauce.

Earlier, Wilson and I spoke in his kitchen, where a formidable pair of double convection ovens was installed just last week. City resident Tommy Brown, 59, was expertly chopping veggies.

"I'm in love with this place," Brown explained, as dozens of other volunteers put finishing touches on the "Flash Community Grocery Store" in the adjacent gymnasium.

Clients had already lined up the length of a block when the doors opened. All of them had been found income-eligible and had registered earlier.

As they came through the door and into the gym - with its festive array of beautifully arranged, piled-high foodstuffs - each was offered a number, a seat, and a volunteer "shopper" to help select, bag, and carry items.

"This is so exciting," said a beaming Valerie Cooke, a Parkside resident who has been associated with the center as a client, a volunteer, and a staffer for 42 years. She signed in the seniors, one by one, and welcomed each.

Other volunteers kept the dozen tables filled. Like Cooke, all were smiling; the spirit in the room was contagious.

"Many of us have so much, and I just want to give back," said Grace Beck, 79, of Marlton, a member of St. Andrew's United Methodist Church in Cherry Hill.

Haddonfield resident Rita Marino, 49, co-owner of Arts Plus Gallery in Collingswood, was helping Hazel Wagner, 79. The retired machine operator at Campbell Soup Co., who lives on Royden Street, said she would be making "mac and cheese, collard greens, potato salad, and sweet potato pie" in addition to the turkey.

The groceries would be "a big help. . . . I'm on a fixed income," she said.

Marino, whose gallery is raffling off donated artwork to benefit the Neighborhood Center, said Wagner "gave me a hug and thanked me" before leaving with her Thanksgiving groceries.

"She was just so grateful," Marino said. "I feel like I didn't do anything."

The smiles I saw in the room suggested otherwise. So does the feeling I carried away from the Neighborhood Center, where so many good people came together to give, and receive.

Happy Thanksgiving.