For the past couple of years, I have volunteered at the Equinox Thanksgiving Community Dinner Event at Empire State Plaza. It started as a way to fulfill my high school community service hour requirements and has now become a tradition that I intend to do complete every year I am able.
“What is Equinox?” you may ask. Well, Equinox is a nonprofit community organization in the Capital Region that serves the homeless, individuals dealing with chemical dependency or domestic violence. Annually on Thanksgiving, Equinox provides a community dinner for 10,000 people, including the homeless and those that are just lonely. The night before, hundreds of giant pans of typical Thanksgiving foods are prepared and stored in freezers.
My job is to be a "runner" where I would run from the freezers with a cart filled with these pans of pre-cooked food to the front of the building where the tables would be located. By pre-cooked, I mean that copious amounts of volunteers spent the past night cooking all of the donated food to create an elaborate meal. At these tables, other volunteers would be scooping out portions of food from the pans onto plates in an assembly-line-like fashion before being handed out to the thousands of patiently waiting recipients.
Equinox impacts the community in a big way every year with their community Thanksgiving dinner. As a volunteer for Equinox, I assist in making that impact and by providing food to the homeless. At the same, I get to meet new people and form connections. I have done Equinox the past two years with my friends from high school, including my boyfriend who has been volunteering for Equinox with his family since he was little. I have been able to bond more with his family, as well as meet some of his family friends. By volunteering on Thanksgiving, it enables me to truly think about everything that I am grateful for, as well as push me to give back to my community more.So I encourage you all to go out this Thanksgiving season, though it is a little late, and do something that not only benefits your community but leaves you feeling satisfied!