ELKHART -- The Roosevelt Center offered plenty of room for plenty of friends as the Elkhart Chapter of Indiana Black Expo held its 11th Feed Our Friends Christmas meal.
Chapter President Robert Taylor said organizers were prepared to feed 500 people, which would be a tenfold increase from the turnout they got when the event began.
"This is a community event and we just wanted whoever comes to get a meal and have an opportunity to get what we have to offer today," he said. "We have plenty of food for people to eat three or four times, and that's just great. To be able to see the kids smile and be able to provide the kids with Christmas gifts, that is just a blessing to us as an organization."
He said everything available Sunday was donated by individuals or organizations in the community. Besides the ingredients for the meal, donations included items that could be taken home for free such as socks, warm clothing, toys and packaged food.
Thousands of toys came came from Lifeline Youth Ministries and Toys for Tots, which Taylor said allowed every child who came to pick five or six items they wanted. The Snack Box Inc. provided all the drinks and United Pies of Elkhart donated slices of pies.
"Eleven years we've been doing it. It's a beautiful thing," said Black Expo board member Denise Redd, who was volunteering in the kitchen with other board members. "They come and go. It's a revolving door. Once those people eat, a new set of people come in and eat. It's a wonderful thing. Not only do they get the chance to come and eat something, then they can also get some food to go, and hygiene products and coats and hats and stuff, and then we have a bunch of toys in the back room for the children."
Taylor said Cultivate Food Rescue donated multiple boxes of packaged food to take home, including 192 frozen turkeys. Participants lined one wall just outside the kitchen, where slices of pie and cooked turkeys were waiting to be brought to the dining area in the gym.
"You got fruit cups down at the very end, Triscuits, water, cookies, Lunchables, and then you've got turkeys down here. Bread and stuff," said board member Duane Owens, pointing to the stacks of boxes. "Basically you've got a meal. You can make a meal out of everything you get."
Just Cause JDC provided the coats, gloves and hats to hand out. It's something the anti-youth-violence organization does every year, though this was their first time partnering with Black Expo, said founder Christy Matthews. She said they also hold an annual Easter Egg hunt in Walker Park and a march against violence in June as well as offering after-school programs and feeding people at area homeless shelters.
"This is our fourth year doing the hats and coats. We normally host it out in Washington Gardens, but this year we weren't able to, so we paired up with Indiana Black Expo to get this out this year," she said. "Last year we had about 23 coats, this year we had like 53, so we did better this year with the coats than we did last year. Our hats and gloves increased tremendously too. We normally only have like 100, but this year we were able to get 300."