Opinion: We’re thankful for all who help Father Joe’s support those in need

As the sun rises on Thanksgiving morning, thousands of people line up at Balboa Park. Toddlers bounce in strollers. Dogs tug at their leashes. Runners stretch out their calves just behind the starting line. Costumed characters, including Feather Joe, are scattered through this crowd. For thousands of families, the Father Joe’s Villages Thanksgiving Turkey Trot has become a beloved annual tradition. 

It is this very tradition, and the many other ways that families gather to give back, that ensures that our neighbors are able to celebrate the holidays with dignity and hope. What Thanksgiving should be, at its heart, is a time for families to come together and to reflect back with gratitude, on what they hold near and dear even when times are hard. 

Yet many of our clients lack family and friends on whom they can rely. They are not cheering their loved ones on at a Turkey Trot. They are not coming home to see relatives visiting from afar. For many people and their families living on the streets, life is about finding a safe place to sleep and enough food to eat. Such isolation increases one’s risk for health conditions such as heart disease, depression, type 2 diabetes and even dementia. 

Something changes when these same neighbors decide to come to our special annual Thanksgiving meal. People, many of whom are celebrating Thanksgiving for the first time in years, sit down among friends new and old, to a warm meal. They laugh, they share stories. Many leave with connections to resources — an appointment with a case manager or a visit to our medical clinic or perhaps even sign up for a spot within our Employment and Education Services center.

Something as simple as a meal is also no small thing. For years now, the San Diego Hunger Coalition has found that upwards of one out of every four San Diegans struggle with food security. The impact of food insecurity only compounds for people who are also experiencing homelessness. The combined stresses of hunger, malnutrition and a lack of a safe place to sleep can lead to health issues, both short and long-term, that can make it even more difficult for people to have the energy to leave homelessness behind for good. 

The government shutdown in October, and the resulting chaos around whether SNAP benefits would be released at all, threatened to drive even more San Diegans into hunger, speaking to just how precarious life can be for our most vulnerable neighbors. It takes only one program being cut or rolled back to threaten thousands  of people and their families with the spectre of poverty and make those already experiencing homelessness or housing instability even more vulnerable.

For this reason, we are most grateful to our neighbors who have given their time and resources, whether that be running in our turkey trot, donating a gift to a toy drive, volunteering at our food pantry, donating funds or even asking our local leaders to stand against budget cuts that threaten programs that support vulnerable San Diegans. It is exactly this kind of support that makes it possible for us to help our neighbors weather whatever may come. But, behind simply surviving, your gifts ensure that the holidays are truly a time for all to be grateful. 

It is by coming together that, during the holidays and beyond, we will come ever closer to a Thanksgiving Day where no one in our region is without a roof over their heads, a full belly and a home full of loved ones and laughter. 

That is what families and runners leave behind when they saunter away from the finish line to catch their breath on Thanksgiving morning: hope that this future may come sooner rather than later. 

If you are among those who have given back, thank you. Your support means more than I can say. If you have not yet, I hope you can join us in being a beacon of hope.

Deacon Jim Vargas is president and CEO of Father Joe’s Villages.

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