(Seguin) – While most teens have been sleeping in late and resting on this holiday break, a group of 40 OLG confirmation students have been staying busy in the kitchen — putting together the final touches on a longtime community tradition. Today, the students — many accompanied by their parents and grandparents –will be preparing to serve the 27th Annual Our Lady of Guadalupe Church Thanksgiving Meal.
The free meal will be served today from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the OLG Parish Center.
Gloria Reyna, OLG director of religious education, says the event is a powerful lesson for the young people who volunteer. She says the community effort has become as much about teaching service as it is about feeding those in need.
“Our second-year confirmation students are required to make service hours during the second year. It’s one of the requirements they must complete. They will get confirmed this year in April 2026 but it also helps them see through the eyes of someone else – what their needs are and I believe that they themselves gain a rich reward by helping and by serving the community in a special way and seeing the faces of these people that are grateful to get this meal and I believe that it also helps them raise their spirit because eventually, they are going to get confirmed and they’ll get the Holy Spirit but these experiences that they have in these different service projects helps them to understand how God works,” said Reyna.
Reyna says this personal connection to service spills over into the way the day operates. She says each plate served from the turkey to the sides is handled by the students themselves.
Reyna says the meal will again be offered as drive-thru or pickup only. There will be no dine-in. Plus, she says this year, the plates will be limited.
“Anyone who is coming in just the drive-thru or to pick up, we are limiting that to four because we want to have as many meals as we can to last us all the way to 1 o’clock because last year, we ran out by lunchtime and there were a lot of people who were disappointed because we ran out,” said Reyna.
Hundreds of homebound residents are also expected to receive plates thanks to the communitywide effort to meet Monday’s delivery-request deadline.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church is located at 409 W. Krezdorn St.