Lunch was ready at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Columbus Salvation Army headquarters on Main Street, but Glenn McDonald wasn’t eating.
At least, not this time.
His tall, lanky frame stood smiling all the same in the former church fellowship hall as he prepared to serve others their meals, hoping to pay forward a small portion of the help he has received since coming to Columbus three years ago — help that pulled him from living in a tent at Lake Lowndes State Park to having a roof over his head and a servant’s heart to go with it.
As scores of area residents in need began filing into the hall for a sit-down Thanksgiving meal, McDonald sprung to action. He warmly greeted everyone he saw and brought drinks and plates of food to grateful recipients sitting at the tables. All the while, his smile never left his face.
“It’s a real blessing to be able to do this,” McDonald said. “I’ve been helped. Now I’m giving back.”
The local Salvation Army chapter — which serves those in need in Lowndes, Clay, Monroe and Noxubee counties — fed about 200 people and enlisted more than 30 volunteers at its Thanksgiving lunch, according to its commanding officer, Major Alan Phillips. The menu of sliced turkey, ham, dressing, cranberry sauce and rolls came exclusively from community donations that helped revive a once-annual event that, for at least the past few years, had gone by the wayside.
“These donations came from businesses, churches, organizations, individuals,” said Phillips, who came to Columbus to work for Salvation Army in June 2015. “In this community, I knew it would work out. …This community always steps up to the plate.”
Those fed on Tuesday defied demographic stereotypes. There were blacks, whites, males and females. Some were old, while others were young adults with children carrying baby dolls. Some sat alone and ate quietly, while others socialized as if they were having Thanksgiving at home.
Their specific circumstance aside, Phillips said, the goal was to show them love and make sure none of them left there hungry.
Other Salvation Army programs
Salvation Army spearheads several aid-based programs throughout the year, most of which depend on volunteers, donations and fundraising. Phillips said the organization distributes boxes of food to area residents two days per week and regularly offers utility bill assistance. Each Christmas, the organization hosts an Angel Tree program, asking citizens to purchase presents and clothing for children in needy families, and it raises money for gifts, food and winter relief during the holiday season through its Red Kettle Campaign.
This year, the local chapter also led a relief effort for flood victims in south Louisiana.
‘It can get better’
Two others scooping dressing at Tuesday’s lunch know firsthand the impact of some of these programs. Angela Corley is a part-time seasonal worker for Salvation Army, and Christina Frederick was there to volunteer. Both are recovering drug addicts from Hattiesburg, and both said their children’s names had once hung on an Angel Tree.
Now, they’re both drug-free, employed and they relate to the struggles associated with need.
“I went through it,” Frederick said. “I’ve definitely been sitting in line at Salvation Army on Thanksgiving. I just want people who are still going through it to know that it can get better. That’s why I’m here.”
Giving back
McDonald also knows about many of the community’s assistance programs from both sides. On Tuesday, he volunteered alongside John C. Line on behalf of Angels on a Mission, one of the local benevolent organizations that helped get him back on his feet.
Angels on a Mission built McDonald’s 218 square-foot home on Tiffany Lane from plywood pallets, giving him something that would keep him drier than the tent where he once lived with his wife and a dog. Since then, Line said McDonald has volunteered with the mission and took shifts last year ringing the bell for the Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign.
“Many people we have helped have gotten their lives together,” Line said. “And when organizations help each other, it’s just another opportunity to help the community and give back to God what He has given us.”
Phillips said its fairly common for people who have received assistance to later man the front lines to help others, whether its through volunteering or giving money. As someone who will celebrate in December his fourth anniversary of being clean from an opiate addiction, Phillips said he’s a living testament to that philosophy.
“Some people get it right, and some people don’t,” he said. “When they don’t, their whole family suffers, and it breaks my heart to see that.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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