Reported by Samuel Li
On Thanksgiving Day, November 28th, 2019, members from the AYLUS San Diego Branch helped the Salvation Army serve over 1,500 lunches to families in need in downtown San Diego at their annual Thanksgiving Dinner Service.
The Salvation Army is a non-for-profit organization dedicated to satisfying human needs all around the globe since 1865. They currently serve 130 countries across the globe and over 25 million Americans annually. The Salvation Army San Diego Regional Office has been serving meals to families in need on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day for the past 36 years in Downtown San Diego’s Golden Hall.
Upon arrival, members started preparing the tables for service for the first two hours. Some helped prepare small cups filled with condiments to be given to each person served. Others put the utensils and cups at each table. After setting up the tables, members lined up with other volunteers and guided guests into the dining area and seated them.
Once the guests had been seated, members began the meal service process. Some members were assigned to serve beverages such as milk, juice, and coffee. These members walked around with either a pitcher of fruit juices, pitcher of coffee, or a tray of milk cartons, asking guests if any of them would like any beverages. Other members served lunch, walking around and distributing trays to the guests. Each tray consisted of turkey, stuffing, corn, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie.
Despite the pouring rain, over 300 volunteers decided to spend 5 hours of their Thanksgiving day to help improve the lives of those less fortunate. The numerous guests were able to enjoy a warm meal under an atmosphere of tranquility bolstered by music and conversation. From such an event, not only were they able to enjoy a delicious meal but also able to forget their worries and truly enjoy life on an important holiday.
AYLUS San Diego is thankful for the opportunity to be able to directly support families in need of San Diego. Each “Thank you” we received from the guests were heart-warming as we knew they struggled to put food on their table every day and were providing a much-needed meal to them.
The following members participated in the 2019 Salvation army Thanksgiving meal service: Chengda Li, Chengming Li, Spencer Zhang, Lejia Zhang, Jessy Zhang, Claire Jiang, Anthony Jiang, Hausen Wu, Eric lin, Conan Wu, Kaden Wu, Yufei Zhang, Jonathan Backues, Alexander Backues, Katherine Backues, Michael Ma, Edward Liu, Serena Liu, Liana Xie, Eric Li, Michael Wang, Emily Wang, Kevin Wang, Eddie Qiao and Andrew Chang
