Family happy to prepare dinner for others

Family happy to prepare dinner for others
Pamela Cowan, The Leader-Post
Published: Saturday, October 07, 2006

The members of the Lygouriatis family believe they're blessed to be able to feed 1,000 hungry Reginans this Thanksgiving.

Last year, seven-year-old George Lygouriatis served bread and scooped mashed potatoes on to plates for 600 hungry Reginans who lined up for a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by the Regina Rescue Mission.

He'll work again today.

"I was very surprised to see so many poor people and it made me feel kind of sad," George said. "I'm a very lucky kid to have what I have right now and I feel very good about helping people that I don't know."

His father, Chris Lygouriatis, owner of Melrose Place Family Restaurant on north Albert, said it's important George and his two siblings meet kids who aren't as fortunate as they are.

"It's a blessing for us to be helping," said Chris.

George and his cousins will be among 80 volunteers helping serve Thanksgiving dinner today.

Chris believes that cooking a 50-turkey dinner with all the trimmings is one way to give back to the community that has been so good to them.

"We're trying to help our fellow citizens as much as we can and the only way to express our thanksgiving is by giving a freshly made turkey dinner that we can afford to create and we can afford to donate," Chris said.

Preparations for today's meal -- it starts at noon at the Albert Scott Community Centre -- began with the roasting of 50 18-pound turkeys at the Northgate Bakery's massive oven earlier this week.

After homemade mushroom soup and Caesar salad, more than 1,000 pounds of mashed spuds will accompany stuffing, cranberries and turkey gravy in the four-course dinner that culminates with a special dessert.

"We delivered an invitation to every home in North Central by hand," said Michelle Porter, the Regina Rescue Mission's associate founding director.

"For a lot of them it will be their only Thanksgiving dinner."

Porter hopes that North Central residents follow the scheduled dinner times on their invitations so they don't all come at once and face a long wait.

In conjunction with community partners, the mission holds three holiday dinners a year.

"The fact the dinners have been growing so much tells me that they're necessary," Porter said. "I think that word is spreading among people in North Central who need a helping hand and we're here to help."

Besides feeding the poor, the mission's campus on Elphinstone Street provides housing for up to a year for men, women and children with various addictions as well as those who are mentally ill.

The mission's Halifax Street facility provides 12 beds to men who can stay up to seven nights for free.

"During that seven days, we assess them and help them to get a permanent housing situation," Porter said.

In the next 12 to 18 months, the mission hopes to expand when it relocates its Halifax Street facility to a 30-suite apartment block.

As Christmas nears, Porter hopes that Reginans remember the mission "in their prayers, in their finances and in their donations of food."