Volunteers welcome for Bishop’s holiday dinners

By Bill Doyle | CFP Correspondent

Kevin Kieler has volunteered to help pack and deliver free meals on Thanksgiving Day for Catholic Charities Worcester County for nearly two decades.

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“It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without it,” he said, “because it really put everything in perspective for my family. Then we go home that afternoon and we have Thanksgiving dinner with everybody ... It allowed everyone to get an idea of how fortunate and blessed we were.”

Mr. Kieler, 60, of Northborough stepped down last year after serving on the Catholic Charities board of directors for 11 years, but he continues to help with the delivery of meals on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

 His daughter Katelyn Kieler, 36, his son Nicholas Kieler and his daughter-in-law Christy Kieler, both 34, and his daughter Abby Kieler, 22, usually take turns volunteering with him, but on occasion all five of them have piled into his Ford Expedition to deliver meals.

A few years ago, Mr. Kieler and Abby delivered a meal to an elderly widow in Worcester.
“She was so happy to see us,” Mr. Kieler said. “A lot of these people, they just want to talk to you for a little while because you’re the only person that they’re going to talk to that day.”

The woman was dressed in pajamas and a robe and Abby noticed that her house slippers were worn and her toes stuck out. When they finished their deliveries and went home, Abby said she needed to go back out for a little while. When she returned home, she informed the family that she had gone to Walmart to purchase slippers and deliver them to the woman.

“She wanted to give her something that would put a smile on her face,” Mr. Kieler recalled.

“The woman was blown away. She was so happy that she thought about her and that she came back because then they had another conversation and she got to talk to someone again.”

While the others are out volunteering, Mr. Kieler’s wife, Bonnie, prepares dinner at home.
“She puts on her holiday music and works all day cooking and prepping and getting ready for everybody to come over,” Mr. Kieler said.

Alexander, son of Nicholas and Christy, was born in May and Mr. Kieler is convinced that his grandson will one day volunteer with his parents.

“Absolutely,” he said. “There’s no doubt whatsoever that that’s going to happen.”

Mr. Kieler began years ago by delivering meals on the holidays. Then he also helped pack them in boxes. When he joined the board, he became one of those who assigned the routes and number of meals, and packed them in the vehicles for the drivers.

In recent years, Mr. Kieler and his family haven’t delivered meals. They’ve remained at the St. Peter Central Catholic Elementary School gym to pack the meals and the vehicles.
Volunteers begin packing meals the day before Thanksgiving and Christmas and return on the holidays from 6:30 a.m. until noon to finish packing and distributing the meals to the volunteer drivers.

Tim McMahon, executive director of Catholic Charities Worcester County, helps out as well.
“I’m not an administrator that day,” he said. “I’m packaging like everyone else is, putting meals inside paper bags, putting them in boxes of 12. I’m no more or less important than anyone else there. We’re all working together.”

Meals consist of turkey, mashed potato, squash, dinner roll, cranberry sauce, stuffing and Table Talk pie, as well as a printed holiday greeting from Bishop McManus.

Catholic Charities volunteers pack and deliver about 3,000 meals, mostly to the homebound elderly, on Thanksgiving and another 3,000 on Christmas, according to Mr. McMahon.

Volunteers in 250 cars deliver meals on Thanksgiving Day, but only volunteers in only 150 cars deliver them on Christmas Day, according to Mr. McMahon. So each car must deliver about 20 meals on Christmas, nearly twice as many as on Thanksgiving. More volunteers are needed on Christmas.

“It would change your entire holiday spirit in a good way,” Mr. Kieler said. “You will get more out of it than the person you are delivering the meal to. It leaves you with a feeling of sheer joy inside. You affected somebody’s holiday so much that you can’t go away without being affected by it.”

Mr. Kieler and his children help out Catholic Charities on Thanksgiving and Christmas, but they volunteer elsewhere the day before each holiday, including packing Thanksgiving meals for food pantries and sorting presents for urban missionaries.

“If you want to get into the holiday spirit, that’s the best way to do it,” he said.

Mr. McMahon said six or eight volunteers from Catholic Charities join 20-30 others who help serve meals that Catholic Charities provides for the sit-down dinner at noon with Bishop McManus at St. Paul Cathedral on Thanksgiving and Christmas.



Holy Cross food services cooks the meals and they are delivered to homes and served at the Bishop’s Dinner at no charge. Corporate and individual donations pay for the meals.

Leftovers are sent to the Crozier House, site of 60 beds for men recovering from alcohol and drug abuse, and to the 20-bed women’s recovery program in Leominster. People from both of those programs volunteer at the holiday dinners.

Lauren Morocco, Catholic Charities development and communications administrator, coordinates the Bishop’s Dinner. About 150 people usually attend each of the dinners on Thanksgiving and Christmas. She said individuals, couples and families take part.

“It’s like a big community dinner,” Ms. Morocco said. “They get their turkey, stuffing and all the fixings dished out to them and they can sit at a table and have the other people there with them and have a nice Thanksgiving or Christmas meal.”

Anyone interested in volunteering should visit www.ccworc.org, call Catholic Charities at 508-798-0191 or call the volunteer hotline at 508-860-2240.

To have a Thanksgiving Day meal delivered call 508-798-0191 by 3 p.m. Nov. 14. To have a Christmas meal delivered, call by Dec. 13. Requests will be accepted until 3,000 meals are ordered.

Registration is not required for the meal at St. Paul Cathedral. Most people who attend live within walking distance, but Catholic Charities will provide free bus service back and forth to St. Paul from Lincoln Village (10:30 a.m.), Booth Apartments (10:35 a.m.), Seabury Heights (10:55 a.m.), Green Hill Towers (11:05 a.m.), Belmont Apartments (11:20 a.m.), Green Island NOC (11:30 a.m.), Greenwood Gardens (10:20 a.m.), Canterbury Towers (10:40 a.m.), Elm Park Towers (10:50 a.m.), Pleasant Towers (11 a.m.), Murray Avenue Apartments (11:10 a.m.), Marble Apartments (11:25 a.m.) and Webster Square Towers (11:40 a.m.).

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