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Christmas dinner at St. Patrick’s serves up comfort to 300
By Sean Barron
YOUNGSTOWN
Angela Young has undergone difficult times of late and can’t afford to buy toys for her family.
So Young, her daughter, Latora; Young’s 8-year-old granddaughter, Teasia, and other relatives partook of a meal, fellowship and others’ company during Sunday’s 20th annual Christmas dinner at St. Patrick Church Hall, 1420 Oak Hill Ave., on the city’s South Side.
For Young, the gathering was as heartwarming as it was important.
“For me, the real meaning of Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ,” she said while enjoying a dinner of turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes. “[The event] is a great help to me.”
An estimated 300 people came to the traditional holiday dinner, sponsored by Youngstown Community Food Center Inc. and the Gleaners Food Bank. The event also provided Young with an opportunity to visit some high-school classmates, she said.
In addition to distributing the meals, Gleaners and the food center gave away donated dolls, board games, puzzles and numerous other toys, as well as flowers for elderly people, clothing, candy and fruit baskets.
Many attendees have no family, have lost their jobs, suffered from home foreclosures and are on fixed incomes, so the dinner was to make their holiday brighter, explained Joe Lordi, organizer.
Lordi recalled having provided food, gloves and transportation to a Marine with a wounded leg, as well as help for a woman who recently had been incarcerated.
“A lot of people don’t see what others are going through,” said Lordi, adding that about 75 volunteers served food and beverages and performed many other tasks. “You don’t know what it is to walk in somebody else’s shoes.”