A Broome County resident who recently became unemployed reached out to Catholic Charities of Broome County this season to feed a family of five children for Thanksgiving.

But while the family hoped to get macaroni and cheese and hot dogs, they received a typical Thanksgiving dinner ‘ turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce and all.

And the resident cried.

‘All we are,’ said Kathy Pfaffenbach, supervisor of emergency services for Catholic Charities, ‘are the hands that pass it on.’

Catholic Charities gave ‘Thanksgiving baskets’ this year to 2,200 families ‘ a total of 7,000 people ‘ as part of its annual effort to provide an adequate holiday feast to the needy.

‘It was wonderful,’ Pfaffenbach said. ‘We definitely had enough food for everyone.’

According to Pfaffenbach, the baskets hold ‘everything you need for Thanksgiving,’ which includes turkey ‘ or a debit card to purchase one ‘ stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, cabbage and more. Catholic Charities provides services to people of any denomination.

‘If there are children in the family, we give extra food because they’re home for the whole weekend,’ Pfaffenbach said.

The meals were paid for by ‘extremely generous’ donations from the community, Pfaffenbach said. The needy signed up for the baskets in October and picked them up at local Catholic parishes before the holiday. Fifty more families signed up than last year.

Broome County’s Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse helps provide meals to the needy that miss the sign-ups. This year they served 25 families, including the family of one man whose wife died this year. He was ‘stressing out’ about feeding his nine children for Thanksgiving, said CHOW director Ed Blaine.

‘We gave him a big turkey,’ Blaine said. ‘He was real happy.’

Catholic Charities of Broome County, which relies on volunteers ‘ including Binghamton University students ‘ and over 400 employees, has helped the local homeless and hungry for over 65 years. Their services range from adoption to crisis intervention to activities with seniors.

For over 50 years the Catholic Charities food pantry ‘ which is the fifth largest food pantry in New York ‘ has helped the hungry in the area. Each year it serves over 500,000 meals to 34,000 people, half of them children.

A hearty meal could make a difference when, in Broome County alone, one out of every eight people don’t know where their next meal is coming from.

This was the case for one woman who missed this year’s ‘Thanksgiving basket’ sign-ups because she was sick in the hospital. But to her surprise, Wegmans ‘ through Catholic Charities ‘ provided a prepared Thanksgiving meal for her and her ‘large family ‘ lots of of little kids,’ Pfaffenbach said.

‘All she had to do,’ Pfaffenbach said, ‘was put it in the microwave and heat it up.’

The woman, still appearing sickly, was released from the hospital and received the meal in time for Thanksgiving.

‘It made us cry,’ Pfaffenbach said.