Salvation Army Serves up Thanksgiving Dinner

A line of people formed outside the Salvation Army Church Wednesday morning to enter a warm building and be served a Thanksgiving meal.

Debbie Berryman, Social Service Director at the Salvation Army, has been planning for the meal since August.

“We expect about 200 to 400 people every year,” Berryman, who has been putting the event together for the past 18 years, said.

For Berryman the event is special because it brings together her work family, her church family, her personal family, and the public.

She said, “For people that don’t have family this becomes the family.”

Berryman is a member at the Christian Faith Center. The majority of the volunteers serving at the Salvation Army Thanksgiving Dinner are members of this church.

Todd Nelson, Pastor at Christian Faith Center said, “It gives us an opportunity to share God’s love with our city.”

Nelson said this is the fourth year a group from the church has come out to help serve at the Salvation Army’s event.

Skylar Kuhlman, a sophomore in high school, said she came out with her church group to serve and “Give others a place where they can be loved and not judged.”

Among those being served, one said the best part was the “dressing”, another “everything.” 

They said they were thankful for “living”, “family”, and “ the Salvation Army”. Although many did not have special plans for Thanksgiving Day one said it was a special day for her because she could  “give thanks to God.”

Major David Feeser of the Salvation Army, said the event is another way for the organization to serve the community.

“They can come down here and spend time with other people and have some fellowship,” Feeser said. “It’s a time when people can realize they don’t have to be alone.”

He said the Salvation Army is grateful this Thanksgiving for “A community where people care about each other as much as the people in San Angelo care about each other.”