A tradition for hundreds of Edmonton’s less fortunate marked 13 years Sunday, as culinary students from NAIT served up a Thanksgiving dinner at Boyle Street Community Services.
“I’m hoping that we serve up at least 400 to 500 plates today. We’ve seen up to 800 in the past,” said Boyle Street drop-in manager Shannon Hebden.
Students put their skills to the test, while giving back to the community.
“[It’s] very rewarding actually. We enjoy getting out in the community and we do it best with our food…makes us feel really good,” said NAIT's Jeff Gordon.
According to Gordon, the group has also learned a few tricks over the years.
“We’ve been able to include more programs. So our professional meat cutting and merchandising program gets involved. They debone our turkeys for us, which makes it much easier - we can fit more turkeys in the oven,” Gordon explained.
Hebden said events like this help build bridges between the inner city and what she referred to as “regular” Edmonton.
“I know it means a great deal to the people here,” she said.
The food, which consisted of 60 turkeys, 500 pounds of potatoes and 500 pounds of vegetables, was supplied by the Edmonton Food Bank and Boyle Street Community Services.
With files from Frazer Snowdon
