The holidays can be joyful. They can also be tough for anyone who is feeling disconnected from family or friends. That's why OurCalling, a Christian-based homeless outreach center in Dallas, serves Thanksgiving meals a little differently.
"Because really that's what causes homelessness. It's not an addition. It's not mental health. It's a broken community," OurCalling CEO Pastor Wayne Walker said. "We are still human, we are still connected, and we need each other."
OurCalling sits its 200 volunteers at tables with the 500 clients, called 'neighbors', to have Thanksgiving together.
"All right! What's your guys' favorite thing on the plate," volunteer Mary O'Connor asked those at her table. Stuffing seemed to be the favorite. "What I love about this is it introduces us to new friends and we get to share prayers and get to know each other."
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The meal isn't just for the neighbors who are experiencing homelessness. The volunteers leave with something, too.
"The first thing they'll have is something beautiful to talk about," Walker said. "Remember that time when everything we thought we knew about poverty, everything we thought we knew about homelessness, was flipped upside down?"
For OurCalling neighbor, Dennis Fisher, the meal flipped things right-side up.
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"It's like a new start over," Fisher said. "It reminds me of my youth, how I would sit down at the Thanksgiving table and we'd all laugh, get food, and have a good time."
OurCalling says this year, it's helped 1,200 people get off the streets permanently.
