On Thanksgiving, Poverello House is a place for tradition amid hardship

Ed Lujano, his wife, and their two daughters arrived at the Poverello House at 8 a.m. Thanksgiving morning. As a line grew outside, the Lujanos chopped vegetables, cleaned and prepared to welcome the hundreds with a free holiday meal.

“We’ve been doing this for 16 years,” Lujano said about his family’s tradition of volunteering. “We used to just see the single men, but over the last five, six years, you see the families come in. It breaks your heart.”

The Poverello House has been serving Thanksgiving meals for 46 years.

Lujano said volunteers treat every client as if they were at a fine dining restaurant.

“We all have to remember that (if not) for the grace of God, we could be on the other side of this table.”

As the morning wore on, families and others warmed up over portions of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, candied carrots and pumpkin pie.

Naomi Romero spent her morning eating with her son, daughter and mom.

“We’ve been coming here for many years,” she said. “ We go through our hardships and stuff like that so we’re really grateful around this time of year.”

Romero said she may cook a meal later in the day for her family, but her illness makes it difficult. “We have not much at home, but we have a little bit. It was pretty helpful to come here and I got the chance to have my family come out and enjoy themselves.”

It was Zachary Darrah’s first Thanksgiving as CEO of the Poverello House after Cruz Avila stepped down in July.

“It was wonderful working with all of the amazing volunteers,” Darrah said. “It’s been great getting to know some of our clients and being able to provide a warm Thanksgiving meal today.”

Darrah said he expected hundreds to have filed through the doors before they stopped serving meals around noon.

Chef Emery Bish has worked at the Poverello House for more than a year. He said he saw a few new faces this Thanksgiving, but most come in weekly to eat the food he helps prepare.

“Every day we try to serve the needy here in Fresno and we always provide a great meal for them. Today was no different.”

This story was originally published November 28, 2019 at 2:23 PM.