North Bay church's 'great Thanksgiving banquet' feeds 5,000

Preparations were underway Wednesday morning for Redwood Gospel Mission’s Great Thanksgiving Banquet where holiday meals were served to 5,000 people in need.

Hundreds of volunteers crowded the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa to prepare and serve food, help with a coat giveaway, give haircuts, plan activities and hold a chapel service. There was even an opportunity to get a free medical screening.

Michael Swartz is one volunteer who said the mission helped him get him through a tough time in his life. He graduated from a program through the mission and he has volunteered every Thanksgiving for the last 10 years.

 “Feels pretty good to give back to people that gave to me,” he said.

The community really rallied around the event, a few weeks ago the mission’s storage container was broken into. Hundreds of coats collected for the banquet’s coat giveaway were stolen, but so many people stepped up to help.

“We put it out on social media had an amazing response from the community so much so we had more coats coming that we were expecting so it was just great to see,” said Eric Sangervasi with Redwood Gospel Mission.

The event was free and open to anyone in need.

Preparations were underway Wednesday morning for Redwood Gospel Mission’s Great Thanksgiving Banquet where holiday meals were served to 5,000 people in need. Nov. 27, 2019

A plate of food at the Redwood Gospel Mission's Thanksgiving banquet. Nov. 27, 2019

Hundreds of volunteers crowded the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa to prepare and serve food, help with a coat giveaway, give haircuts, plan activities and hold a chapel service. There was even an opportunity to get a free medical screening.

The community really rallied around the event, a few weeks ago the mission’s storage container was broken into. Hundreds of coats collected for the banquet’s coat giveaway were stolen, but so many people stepped up to help. Nov. 27, 2019