For more than a decade, Edna Becerra and her family have worked tirelessly in the days leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday.
Their mission? To provide a Thanksgiving meal to the dozens of residents living in the Proyecto Pastoral homeless shelter at Dolores Mission Catholic Church in Boyle Heights. The meal is cooked for residents and shelter staff, but nobody is turned away if they are hungry, Becerra said.
The tradition is a family affair with Becerra’s parents, in-laws, children, husband and uncle joining in to provide dinner to those in need.
Here, you won’t find common Thanksgiving dishes like turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes. Instead, Becerra and her family prepare the community a simple dish: carne asada, rice and beans.
“We found out that [the shelter residents] get fed at least four meals of turkey prior to Thanksgiving,” said Becerra’s daughter, Carolina Rodriguez, 20. “I think whenever we come on Thanksgiving, it’s a refresher to them. It’s food from their home countries, or just food that they’re accustomed to and comfortable with.”
Pozole, barbacoa, carnitas, champurrado and conchas have also been on their Thanksgiving menu. For dessert, the family is happy to serve store-bought pumpkin pies. Rodriguez and her mother said offering rice, beans and carne asada for Thanksgiving dinner makes the American holiday feel more special.
To Becerra, who lives in Whittier with her family, it’s gratifying seeing people get up to get seconds or even thirds.
“It goes back to making sure everybody is able to enjoy a savory, tasty meal that might give them a taste of home if they’re far from home. We see a lot of joy and gratitude in being able to eat something that tastes familiar,” Becerra said.
Raquel Román, the executive director of Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission, said the annual tradition is a beautiful display of how the community serves those who are less fortunate, including many of the recent immigrants who live at the shelter. Román and Becerra are longtime friends who grew up together in Huntington Park.
“One of our values is reciprocity and one of our main objectives is relationship and community building. By the family coming out year after year, it builds a relationship of trust. Yes, they are coming to serve a special meal on a special day, but it also provides a sense of doing something for others. Being able to provide a meal and being in community gives you so much in return,” Román said.
The family preps the meat, beans and other ingredients in the days leading up to the holiday. On the day of, they spend a few hours inside Dolores Mission’s kitchen to serve a fresh meal for residents. Román said many of the people who depend on Proyecto Pastoral and Dolores Mission for shelter and food are fond of the special holiday dinner.
The idea to cook for the shelter’s residents was spurred after Becerra’s family spent $400 on a pre-cooked Thanksgiving meal for themselves.
“It was so sad and disappointing that there was no sentiment there. We had just bought a meal, and we didn’t even try to set up a nice table. We just served out of plastic containers. And I thought, we’ve just lost the meaning of this. We’ve lost the point and purpose. We just spent $400 to stuff ourselves with turkey. I wonder what we could do with those $400,” Becerra recalled thinking.
“It turns out that you can feed like 60 people when you decide to cook a meal on your own,” she added.
Becerra later got in contact with Román at Proyecto with the idea to cook and feed the shelter residents. A tradition soon followed.
Every member of the Becerra family pitches in for the Thanksgiving meal. Photos courtesy of Edna Becerra.
While the family takes pride in helping out during the holidays, they have been private about their service.
“We’ve been doing this for a long time without telling a whole lot of people about it or posting about it. It’s not what it’s about,” Becerra said. “You know, it’s not a photo op for us.”
One year, as Becerra’s father served Proyecto Pastoral shelter residents at Dolores Mission, he was recognized by a man in line for a meal who he hadn’t seen since before he migrated to the U.S. in the 1970s.
This moment spurred the family to reflect on their ability to make the lives of others better, even if just for a day.
“The fact that there was this counter between them and that their lives had obviously taken different directions was a very humbling moment for my dad, and a moment that forced him to really reflect,” Becerra said.
“It was a reminder for him and for all of us that we live in a society and under a system that really keeps all of us just one tragedy away from being on the other side of the counter.”
