Hundreds of families served by Valley Thanksgiving Blessing

WASILLA — One of the most famous New Testament Bible stories is of Jesus feeding the multitude, where through faith he was able to feed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fishes.

That same faith in service is what sparked emotion for the Fauble family, one of the multitude to file through Wasilla Bible Church Saturday for the annual Valley Thanksgiving Blessing.

“We probably wouldn’t have much of a Thanksgiving it if wasn’t for this,” Kim Fauble said about the event, which provides families with whole turkeys and all the trimmings for a holiday feast. “It would be very slim. This helps a lot and we’re so grateful for it. For the volunteers, thank you very much for everything. It’s a blessing for us and our family.”

One of six Valley locations set up for the Thanksgiving Blessing, Wasilla Bible Church had enough food to serve 1,300 families, said Jake Davies, resource manager for the church.

In a change from previous years, the Thanksgiving Blessing was spread out at six locations around the Mat-Su, with distribution points in Big Lake, Trapper Creek, Palmer, Talkeetna, Willow and Wasilla.

It’s the third year for the event in the Valley, and the third year of participation for Wasilla Bible Church.

“We’ve been involved in this the past three years. This is our first year on site here,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity to come together as a faith-based community and help out and serve together. It’s good.”

Before the church’s gymnasium could be packed with volunteers giving out turkeys, potatoes, apples, pies and more, all that food had to be brought up from the Food Bank of Alaska in Anchorage, Davies said. That wasn’t easy, though, with the icy road conditions on Friday.

“We had to brave the weather and get our trucks in (to Anchorage) to get the food, so the Lord was with us in protecting us there,” he said. “We brought in thousands of pounds of food with three trucks running yesterday. It all worked out.”

Dozens of volunteers prepared the food for distribution and even went so far as to carry the food out to people’s cars.

“Whenever you have an opportunity to serve, you should,” Davies said. “It helps to bless the community, but it’s a blessing in return.”

That’s a feeling shared by Linda and Patrick Cook. The couple has been married 41 years and spent much of Saturday morning and afternoon bagging apples — 622 bags as of noon. Watching as hundreds of families went through the lines getting their Thanksgiving meals brought on feelings of joy and sadness, Linda Cook said.

“I think it’s sad how it is with our economy, and it doesn’t have to be like that,” she said. “But it’s wonderful outreach.”

“We get to help the needy people and we’re having such fun,” Patrick Cook added. “The Lord blesses us, and we bless it forward.”

Along with volunteer Katelina Brown, all three on apple duty said they were glad to see so many community youth volunteering as well.

“The kids bring joy to the rest of us, and they learn service and that hard work pays off,” Patrick Brown said. “The youth learn to serve the way our savior served, and that’s important for them.”

Kim Fauble — along with husband Joe, daughter Alisa, 7-month-old grandson Christopher and Steven Bennett — said the joy volunteers feel in serving is also felt by those being served.

“It’s beautiful, that’s what it is,” Joe Fauble said. “I think it’s awesome and great to see this many people. We have a lot of neighbors here, too. We have neighbors we help and we all try to help each other.”

That so many would get together to make sure their neighbors don’t go hungry this holiday season “means a lot,” Bennett said. “It pretty much sets up our family for Thanksgiving day, and it helps us out for Christmas dinner, too.”

In the end, those giving and receiving left the Valley Thanksgiving Blessing with the same feeling, Bennett said. “We’re very blessed.”

Contact Greg Johnson at 352-2269 or greg.johnson@frontiersman.com.