60 turkeys, 45 pumpkin pies, 600 people

By Marlene Quaroni - Florida Catholic

POMPANO BEACH | Faith Rodriguez didn’t have any plans for Thanksgiving until a friend told her about the annual Thanksgiving dinner at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church.

“Rafael Garcia, the dinner’s chef, asked me, where are you going for Thanksgiving?” she said. “I told him I would probably stay home alone. He said that I should come to dinner at St. Elizabeth’s Church. So I took him up on his offer.”

Rodriguez came to the church’s parish hall and found the room packed with people, all kinds of people — families, residents from adjacent St. Elizabeth Gardens senior housing, and parishioners. Everyone was welcome.

She struck up a conversation with Tim Battaglia. They sat together and enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner along with about 600 other people.

“Tim and I are both from New York so we had something in common,” she said. “This is a nice, safe environment and the church puts on a good dinner. I’m glad that I learned about this.”

Deacon Dan Moretti started the annual Thanksgiving dinner 30 years ago. It was originally for the residents of St. Elizabeth Gardens because most were alone and elderly.

“We cooked the meals at a Knights of Columbus Hall,” said Deacon Moretti. “It soon became a very popular event.”

Deacon Moretti has been a diligent contributor to his church for many years, in addition to founding the Thanksgiving dinner. Now disabled, he used to dress as Santa Claus and appeared in several commercials, at private parties and malls then donated his earnings to a special fund for the needy at St. Elizabeth of Hungary.

The Thanksgiving dinner is a tradition that runs in the Moretti family. His daughter started serving at eight years old. Now she is joined every year by her husband, teenage son and daughter.

When a new St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church building opened in 1990, the old church building became the parish hall, complete with a large kitchen. The annual dinner expanded to include anyone who wanted to come.

Money and food are donated as well as the talents of chef Garcia, who oversees the preparation of the food.

“I started cooking yesterday at 10 in the morning and left here at 10:30 last night,” he said. “I make sure that everything is done right. I do this for God and love of his people. The holiday season causes many people without families to become depressed so this is a good place for them to come.”

Garcia said that he prepared the 60 turkeys, cranberries, yams, green beans, stuffing and mashed potatoes with his own special ingredients. Slices from 45 pumpkin pies and festive Thanksgiving decorations were placed on the tables. The event opened with a Thanksgiving Day Mass, followed by the dinner.

Garcia’s grown children live in New York so the Thanksgiving dinner is an opportunity for him to serve others and also enjoy dinner with other members of the community.

The dinner draws more volunteers to cook, serve and clean up than necessary.

“There are so many people that want to help that we have to turn away volunteers,” said Paulette Kraft, head of the parish council and treasurer of the church’s St. Vincent DePaul Society.

Even the principal of Somerset Pines Charter School, which rents the former St. Elizabeth of Hungary School building, volunteered to hand out food. Most of the volunteers came from the St. Elizabeth of Hungary youth group. One of them was Alex Velez, 14, a Cardinal Gibbons High School freshman.

“It’s nice to see the smiles on people’s faces,” she said. “A lot of people come alone and here they can eat with others.”

St. Elizabeth of Hungary’s former pastor, Father Steven O’Hala, now pastor at St. David in Davie, also stopped by, as usual, to volunteer.

“This is a great service to the people of the community,” he said.

In addition to the meals served in the parish hall, volunteers also packed and delivered meals to the homebound. Parishioners Rich and Margaret Corbett chaired the Thanksgiving dinner and made sure that everything ran smoothly.