Monday, November 19, 2007

7th Annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner

Tonight was our 7th Annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner served for the diverse and different members of our East Oakland Community from the Glenview through Millsmont. I'm posting a slide show of some of my best-of pictures.




What encouragement to see so many different folks working together to create a community meal about giving thanks and about building community. That's a buzz word these days...but what I love about living in District 4 is the diversity, the deep meaning of what community means for us whether it's a Thanksgiving Dinner for those hungry for a hot meal, hungry for company in their isolation, or hungry for an urban neighborhood community in which we actually know, recognize and communicate with our neighbors. It reminds me of my latte at Peet's in the Dimond the other day. While talking with a friend from church about music a homeless friend came in for a cup of coffee and joined us, while the manager Scott checked in with us and I saw a friend from my child's school. If that's not community, I'm not sure what it is.

Special thanks to all those that helped make our Community Thanksgiving Meal and our Thanksgiving Food Distribution possible:

La Farine for the donation of bread
Bret Harte & Sequoia Schools for their canned food drive efforts
The members and friends of Fruitvale Presbyterian Church
All the Neighbors who joined in and helped with donations and service
Diane Ball for heading the whole thing up
Robin Goodfellow for the fantastic arts & crafts for the children
Cecilia Jackson for cooking all those beautiful turkeys
and the Thursday Night Bible Study for the clean-up help til the very end!
See you next year the Sunday before Thanksgiving!
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4 comments:

Corn Dog said...

Thanks Monte and everyone. I had a great time and some really good turkey and fellowship.

6:05 AM
Monte said...

It was fun. So great to see such a wide spectrum of Dimond/Laurel folks there. Glad you and Corn Dog 2 made it to join us for the fun, service, and community building!

5:49 PM
Patchizinho said...

Monte I really like your explanation of the many "hungers" that were satiated at your community meal.

11:09 PM
Monte said...

Patchizinho,

I'm glad that my explanation spoke to you. I believe as pastor and member of a community of folks gathered together in the way we follow Jesus that we have to be first and foremost about serving and siding with the poor. And that also means standing with the poor in spirit, poor in community and those seeking to build community where we live, work and relate with our neighbors. We live in a great part of Oakland, undergoing a lot of significant change and transformation. Our church community believes that we can help - or be part of a solution - is to seek to build and encourage deepening community in the midst of the gentrification.

Hope to see you around the Dimond/Laruel sometime.

1:20 AM

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