Memorial Lutheran Church delivers over 500 Thanksgiving meals

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - Generous patrons have been flooding Memorial Lutheran Church in Southern Sioux Falls, dropping off food so that volunteers can distribute meals to those in need on Thanksgiving Day.

Blake Miller has helped prepare Thanksgiving meals at the church since he was a kid.

“I kind of worked my way up. They let me do corn and then gravy, and now the last four years, they let me be in charge of deliveries,” Miller said.

That’s quite an important job because this year they sent out more than 500 meals.

“We’ve seen it increase every year, and we’ve seen a lot of people will to help out with that and just do what we need,” Miller said.

It takes roughly 200 volunteers to make this all possible. Larry Noah is one of them.

“It’s just an awesome blessing and a charge that the lord has given us to do this and to reach out in the community and to serve people,” Noah said.

Larry and his wife Jan have been with Memorial Lutheran for more than 40 years and have volunteered on Thanksgiving for about just as long. This year they were tasked with making the deliveries.

“There’s a lot of people out there that don’t always have a blessed day on Thanksgiving. This gives us an opportunity to have just a moment with those people and be able to bless them,” Noah said.

The deliveries go to a variety of different places, including nursing homes, assisted living centers, and more.

“To greet the people and to see their smiling faces when you bring them a hot meal, it just means a lot,” Noah said.

One person that needed a meal this year was Betty Zeik, who, in years past, had also volunteered on Thanksgiving.

“The people are so nice and so helpful,” Zeik said.

“Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there, and God’s blessing to you,” Noah said.

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