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St. Vincent de Paul continues decades-long tradition of feeding community on Thanksgiving
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BATON ROUGE - St. Vincent de Paul has fed the community on Thanksgiving Day for more than four decades, serving more people each year.
Dining Hall Director Denise Terrance has played a big part in the Thanksgiving meal for the last 20 years. It's more than just a job to her.
"It's actually a warm feeling, because everything that we do — it's not about us, it's about them," Terrance said.
She usually oversees the dining hall, but on Thanksgiving Day she helps with the operations of all four feeding locations across the city.
"We started cooking days ago because we have the four locations so we had to get everything ready. But by the grace of God, he just keeps letting us do what we do and we enjoy every minute of it," Terrance said.
Cheryl Cochran has been the CFO for the last 21 years. However, this Thanksgiving is different for her because she has a new title — interim CEO.
"I would stay in my office, I didn't see it first-hand. And it's heartfelt, wonderful, to see the wonderful things personally that we do. But seeing it first-hand and seeing the volunteers, the community that's coming in and volunteering their time and the need that is out there. I mean it is growing exponentially year after year," Cochran said.
The best part for Denise is watching everyone eat the food they've worked so hard to make.
"We gave them cornbread dressing. We gave them ham, we gave them Turkey, we gave them green beans and yams. We did not forget the rolls and we did not forget the cranberry sauce. So just what you had at home, these people had today," Terrance said.
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