Father Joe’s Village handed over 2,000 early Thanksgiving Day lunches to those in need. That included a total of 989 pounds of turkey, 590 pounds of potatoes and 225 pounds of cranberry sauce.

Volunteers and staff helped serve hundreds of lunch and dinner meals to individuals experiencing homelessness as part of their Franklin Antonio Public Lunch program.

“Thanksgiving is a time for family to get together and have a meal. The homeless are left out on the street, they don’t really have a family, so this becomes their family,” Father Joe Carroll said.

The homeless nonprofit organization has provided meals in the San Diego area for 69 years.

The organization serves about 3,000 meals per day and offers medical and mental health services to the homeless.

“When I look back all I did was [just hand out food during] Thanksgiving and Christmas now, we do this 365 days in a year,” Father Joe said. “It’s amazing what people helped us grow into, to service our neighbors in need.”

Students and faculty from the Freddie Evarkiou Culinary Arts Program also helped cook Wednesday’s Thanksgiving meals.

Father Joe's will also host its 18th annual Thanksgiving Day 5K in Balboa Park on Thursday.