Morning fog bedeviled air travelers at the region’s airports Thursday morning, but gloomy weather couldn’t deter scores of volunteers serving Thanksgiving meals to many of Washington’s needy.
At McPherson Square, one of two locations where Randy and Necola Staples — and nearly 200 volunteers — dished out hot Thanksgiving meals, demand looked to be on an upswing.
“The demand is great, it’s steady,” Necola Staples said. “Typically we have a rush and it slows down. But we had a rush and it never slowed down, people just keep coming.”
The two organizers said they served up roughly 30 turkeys, 10 hams, about 20 pounds of macaroni and cheese, with piles of green beans, cornbread and cranberry sauce, serving about 500 people as of noon.
The uptick in crowds coming for the free meal was partly because of the poor economy, said Randy Staples, and partly because of word of mouth.
“They know we’ve been consistent coming here every year, more and more they tell somebody: ‘Hey, I know where we can get a nice hot meal, let’s go.'”
The gathering was part of a broad effort to feed a growing population of struggling local residents. District nonprofit Food & Friends planned to offer home-delivered meals to 3,500 people on Thursday, an expansion from previous years that involved preparing about 8,400 pounds of turkey, 975 pounds of cornbread stuffing and 1,050 pounds of potatoes.
Meanwhile, across town in Northeast another tradition was playing out: the 40th annual Turkey Bowl. H.D. Woodson High beat Ballou, 30-26, in the city championship football game at Eastern High.
At airport terminals, frustrations were on display as dense fog prevented flights from landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National, Washington Dulles International and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall airports. The conditions forced a ground stop for flights destined for the three airports, which the Federal Aviation Administration lifted by 10:30 a.m.
Dulles was a stopover for Mara Saskin, 25, as she flew from Newark, N.J., to Jacksonville, Fla. But the fog prevented her United flight from landing, instead routing it to Norfolk before the plane was cleared to fly back to Northern Virginia. She touched down in Florida four hours late.
“The sad reality is it took six hours to get from Newark to Dulles,” she said. “You can make that drive in traffic in less than six hours.”
Examiner Staff Writer Leah Fabel and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
