Merced Rescue Mission, law enforcement helping less fortunate for Thanksgiving, holidays

The Merced County Rescue Mission is holding its annual holiday banquet on Thanksgiving Day from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

This year’s banquet will be held in the parking lot of the Behavioral Health Department between New Directions and the D Street Shelter, according to the Merced County Rescue Mission website.

This year workers with the Rescue Mission said so many people showed an interest in volunteering at the Thanksgiving banquet, there will be no shortage of those helping to serve food to the community’s less fortunate.

Those working the banquet hope at least 300 people from the Merced area’s homeless community will be there for a warm holiday meal.

“A lot of people already want to help, so we have enough helping hands,” said Anthony Choza, operations manager at the Merced County Rescue Mission. “We got a lot of people already, so we’re okay with the help.”

During this second Thanksgiving season affected by COVID, the Merced County Rescue Mission is hosting its banquet a little differently this year to maximize safety of banquet attendees and volunteers.

“They’re not going to sit down and eat like we used to do it because of COVID,” Choza said. “That’s what we’re doing differently this year. It’s out in the open, so there’s not too much to worry about.”

The Merced County Rescue Mission will serve non-perishable food items to those who attend the banquet, in addition to pre-cooked, boneless turkey breast, cans of corn and green beans, boxes of instant mashed potatoes, turkey gravy mix, chicken broth, dinner rolls and pies.

Choza said on Tuesday the mission only needs one more food item. “We really do need the boxes of mashed potatoes,” Choza said. “That’s where we’re kind of lagging right now.”

The Merced County Rescue Mission is also hosting a banquet on Christmas Eve. For more information about donating to the mission or volunteering for the Christmas holiday, visit mercedrescuemission.org.

Other holiday services

The Rescue Mission isn’t the only local group to help those less fortunate this holiday season. Local law enforcement agencies are helping out, too.

The Merced County Sheriff’s Office will have its annual Christmas toy drive, part of a seasonal initiative called Operation Christmas Star, in the parking lot of Walmart in Atwater on Black Friday.

Toys are delivered to children in the community just in time for Christmas, public information officer Daryl Allen said, and families are “adopted” by those in the department.

“Typically, when we find families that are really needing our help, what we do is — we call it ‘Adopt a Family,’ — people in our agency will adopt a family,” Allen said. “We give them a complete dinner, we take the kids’ toys and clothing, all that. So we pretty much go all out.”

Last year, Allen said, 26 families were helped by Operation Christmas Star.

Officials expect to help just as many children and families this year with Operation Christmas Star.

“COVID has been very difficult for everybody,” Allen said. “I’ve been doing this for five years now, and for five years it’s just steadily gone up.”

The Atwater Police Department and Atwater Fire Department are teaming up again this year to do a toy drive, also an annual effort. The two departments will

“That’s our main holiday, philanthropic thing that we do every year,” Atwater Police Chief Michael Salvador said.

“The need is so great here in the Atwater area during the holidays. We engage local businesses here to help us collect toys. It is just a big undertaking every year.”

As of Tuesday, the department’s toy drive website, atwatertoydrive.com, counted 27 days until toy pickups, giving members of the community until Dec. 20 to drop off toys that will be distributed to children on Nov. 21.

So far, 257 children in the community have been registered to receive toys collected through the toy drive and no toys have been donated so far, according to the toy drive website.

Parents and guardians of children up to 12 years old can register their children to receive toys collected through the Atwater Toy Drive. Nov. 30 is the deadline to register children for this year’s drive.