TRUMANN - Scores of people scurried across the parking lot outside the Trumann Sports Complex on Pecan Grove Road, loading boxes of food into trucks and vans.
Others carried jugs of tea and crates of soft drinks.
Vehicles sped away with the loads bound for homes and apartments in the Poinsett County town. Other drivers entered the lot, parked with engines idling and waited for more boxes of food.
To visitors, the frenetic pace looked chaotic. But to those involved, it was a choreographed routine that the volunteers of the town’s annual Christmas dinner have grown accustomed to.
It’s the 16th year that volunteers in Trumann have provided the holiday meals to the elderly, those who are alone, those who cannot afford to prepare their own food and anyone else who wants a Christmas feast.
Lindsey Miller, the organizer of the dinner, said she estimated that her group served more than 1,000 people Wednesday.
“It’s growing every year,” said Miller, who took over as director of the Trumann Christmas Dinner five years ago. “There’s a need for this in Trumann and in the area, and it’s getting more and more each year.”
The scene in Trumann, a northeast Arkansas town of 7,194, resembled similar activities across the state offered by churches, civic organizations and other groups. They also said more needy people are going to them for help.
The Little Rock Compassion Center, an inner-city organization that provides shelter for homeless people and nearly 150,000 meals a year on West Roosevelt Road, planned to serve about 900 meals Wednesday, the Rev. William Holloway said.
“It’s about 20 percent up from years past,” he said of the number of people served. “The bad weather came earlier this year. The economy is bad. The cuts in [the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] have hit people hard.
“You see a lot more trouble,” he said. “People are barely making it.”
He said construction and landscaping jobs have ended sooner than usual because of the cold weather and rains.
“There are people who made their living raking leaves or painting or doing construction work,” he said. “This year they were laid off earlier. It happened a little earlier than usual.”
Employers are also more fearful of hiring full-time employees because of rises in insurance costs, he said.
“They are very cautious with people working more than 29 hours a week so they can keep their insurance expenses down,” he said. “You can’t take care of a family on 29-hours-a-week pay.”
He said he is also seeing more families with children going to the Compassion Center this year.
“It makes people’s lives very hard,” he said. “I think it will stay this way for the next couple of years.”
In Trumann, the closings of factories and a growing elderly population are reasons for the increase in meals, said volunteer Cecilia Parker.
“A lot of people have also moved here from somewhere else,” she said. “And then they can’t find work. There’s just not much out there. The area has really had to tighten its belts.”
Most of the meals prepared Wednesday were taken to homes, but at least 50 people arrived to eat at the sports complex in Trumann.
Kenneth Steen of Trumann met his friend Arnold Crow of Tyronza for the meal.
Both are on Social Security. Steen said his benefits increased by only about $10 a month this year.
“You can’t buy food on that,” he said.
“Christmas ain’t like it used to be,” Steen said. “It’s tough being on a fixed income.”
Steen’s wife died seven years ago; his children live in other towns and, although he did receive calls from them Wednesday, he didn’t see them.
“It’s sad,” he said. “I hear Christmas music on the radio, and I have to turn it off. It’s hard.”
Behind him, two artificial Christmas trees with blinking lights flanked the complex doorway. The song “Jingle Bells” played on a stereo. “Silent Night” followed.
Crow, who is not married and lives alone, said a week ago a woman gave him a 2014 calender. “I told her, ‘Bless your heart. That’s the only present I’ll get.’”
Wanda Halsey of Trumann sat at the table a few seats away from Steen and Crow. Wednesday was the first time she’d gone to the complex for a meal.
“I didn’t want to be by myself,” she said. “I can’t afford a meal like this.”
Halsey said she had to sell her Trumann home and move into an apartment because she could no longer afford the upkeep and insurance required to maintain a house.
“This is great,” she said of the meal. “I think God is involved in this. If they have this again, I just might do it again.”
Halsey said she spent Thanksgiving with some relatives and, as she drove in her Trumann neighborhood, she saw a man walking along the street. “I’d seen him before,”she said. “I knew his parents were dead, and he was alone. I felt sorry for him.
“I asked him if he had anywhere to eat and he said no,” she said.
Halsey said she invited him to her Thanksgiving dinner.
It’s the volunteer spirit of Trumann that helps make the dinners a success, Miller said.
“There’s a need here,” she said. “And Trumann is a giving community. There are so many people willing to help.
“It blesses me,” she said. “So many come to help. To give up a few hours of Christmas to come here - it really blesses me.”
Volunteers Brian Riga, his wife and three children stood in a line near tables of food. Each held a Styrofoam-covered plate and waited to put turkey, potatoes, corn, green beans, bread and a slice of cake in it to be delivered to a home.
Riga’s family members - who live in Trumann - made it through the line and then returned to load more plates for more families.
“Christmas is not just about presents,” Riga said. “We wanted to try and show our children that, rather than just tell them. We wanted to set an example and show them as a family. Later, they can show their own kids and keep this going.”
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 12/26/2013