A community organization will serve free Thanksgiving Day meals at Philadelphia’s Church of the Advocate
The Church of the Advocate shuttered its Advocate Cafe soup kitchen in September after 40 years, but a community member is sponsoring free Thanksgiving meals there on Thursday.
Although the Church of the Advocate’s soup kitchen, once called the Advocate Cafe, shut down in September due to financial problems, the church will host free Thanksgiving Day meals for those in need at its Washington Center on Thursday.
The Thanksgiving food is being provided by one of the church’s community partners, the Rev. Taehoo Lee of the North Philadelphia Community Church, which runs an after-school program at the center.
The sit-down meal will be served between 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. at the Washington Center, which is on the 18th Street side of the church campus at 1801 W. Diamond St.
Lee is providing the food, and the Church of the Advocate is providing the space, said Matilda Petty, senior warden of the church, where she is an assistant to the priest in charge.
Last year, the church served about 200 people on Thanksgiving. Petty said the church expects that Lee will serve about the same number of people this year.
Mamie Mathis, who was the cook at the Advocate Cafe for more than 15 years, will supervise volunteers preparing the food, Petty added.
The Church of the Advocate opened its Monday-through-Friday cafe, which mostly served people who are homeless, in 1983. When word got out that the cafe was closing on Sept. 30, people worried that the entire church might close due to a lack of finances and a dwindling congregation. But the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania said the church was not closing and would remain open for Sunday worship services and the after-school program.