The Guest House, an extended stay shelter located at 1216 N. 13th St., will have a Thanksgiving dinner for the adult men it serves. ,”

As the Marquette community goes home over break to eat turkey and be with family, the people who are currently without homes will go to shelters across the city to try and get their fill.

The Guest House, an extended stay shelter located at 1216 N. 13th St., will have a Thanksgiving dinner for the adult men it serves.

According to Executive Director Andrew DeFranza, a group from New Creation Church ministry will come and make a Thanksgiving meal for residents of the house.

St. Benjamin the Moor Parish, located on 1015 N. Ninth St., will also have programs for the people of Milwaukee.

Brother Dave Schwab of St. Ben's is in charge of feeding between 300 and 400 people on Thanksgiving Day.

"We are currently roasting 35 turkeys in preparation for Thursday," he said.

The meal is important to Schwab because the focal point of the meal is celebrating the community of people who have formed relationships with one another.

"They are family to each other," he said.

Schwab said he has received an outpouring of help for Thursday's meal.

People who attend these community meals said it is an important service, as many do not have family around to visit during the season.

Joe Wesolowski, 39, said he went to St. Ben's last year for Thanksgiving.

"Most people won't think about the homeless because they have a home to go to during the season," Wesolowski said. "But we really don't and it is wonderful that we have some sort of program to go to around the holidays."

Wesolowski has stayed at the Guest House for one month but has considered himself homeless for the last six months. Wesoloswki, who served in the Army for 14 years in Operation Desert Storm and Somalia, is staying with the Guest House while he gets an apartment through a VA program.

Another guest of the Guest House has not celebrated his own Thanksgiving since 1966.

"The last time I celebrated Thanksgiving was when my mother was alive," said a man who called himself JB.

JB has been in Milwaukee for 22 years but lived in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Los Angeles for a while.

"The thing about Wisconsin is that they feed you here, and they don't let you starve," he said. "It shows that someone cares."

He went to the shelter for Thanksgiving last year.

"They just keep feeding you there," he said. "You just sit down and they just keep bringing food out."

JB has stayed with the Guest House since September and plans on completing the organization's program in order to find a home and get a job that pays well.

"I want to get a good job," he said. "I am sick of working for chump change."

He doesn't know how long he will be in Milwaukee but said, "I usually blow with the wind."

According to Sara Kandler, coordinator of Campus Kitchens at Marquette and a 2006 alumna, Campus Kitchens provides 300 Thanksgiving meals for the unemployed or underemployed.

Campus Kitchens gets the food that is prepared by the dining halls, creates healthy meals and delivers them to agencies across Milwaukee, Kandler said.

For Thanksgiving, the organization is having Turkeypalooza, an extension of the Campus Kitchens program, which provides "the whole spread," to clients, according to Kandler.

"We prepare the Thanksgiving meal but also give the people a grocery bag of everything they need to make the meal," she said.

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