Daddy Bruce's Thanksgiving event in Denver in desperate need of volunteers and donations
Sixty years after a Denver restaurant owner started providing free meals on Thanksgiving to those in need, volunteers are struggling to keep that tradition alive.
In 1963, Daddy Bruce Randolph held a free barbecue at his restaurant in Denver's Five Points neighborhood on Thanksgiving because he didn't want anyone in his community to go hungry. What started with a few hundred free meals soon turned into a few thousand free meals. After Daddy Bruce died in 1994, The Epworth Foundation carried on his legacy with Denver Feed-A-Family.
"Daddy Bruce came from some hard times and one of the things he wanted to make sure was people were fed," says Pastor Jerry Demmer, who grew up in Five Points and now helps with the giveaway.
He says feeding the hungry was a ministry to Daddy Bruce.
"One of the things that Daddy Bruce would talk about first of all was Jesus took two fish and five barley loaves and he fed 5,000."
But these days it takes more than a couple fish and five loaves of bread to 5,000 people.
Xiomara Yanique, Program Director for Epworth Foundation, says it takes $400,000, and she says they've raised just over $100,000.
"So, we're severely severely short. We're just asking everyone to give what you can. $5 adds up."
$50, she says, pays for a basket of food for a family of eight. Yanique says she's also short volunteers. She needs a thousand people to help assemble and deliver the baskets and, she says, so far 500 have signed up, "I know with God all things are possible, so I'm just pushing through."
But she's worried about meeting the need after a major donor pulled out.
Daddy Bruce kept a bible verse up in his restaurant that said, "It is more blessed to give than receive." Pastor Demmer is hoping there's a little Daddy Bruce in a lot of Coloradans, "We have a little saying 'Each one, reach one.' And I say 'Each one, reach one and feed one.' We have an opportunity to say in the name of Daddy Bruce that we're going to make sure that there is no hungry -- especially on Thanksgiving."
The baskets will be assembled this Friday (Nov. 17) and the giveaway will take place Saturday at Epworth United Methodist Church. If you'd like to help, The Epworth Foundation has a website for donations and volunteers: epworthfoundation.org
