By Tracy Zwick
For nearly four decades, St. Paul & St. Andrew United Methodist Church on West 86th Street has been the dessert-making headquarters for local community services nonprofit Goddard Riverside’s Community Thanksgiving Dinner.
The long tradition started with a few people baking and delivering a dozen or so pies, and it has “just ballooned,” according to Charlene Floyd, one of the early pie bakers who now oversees the “mammoth” cookie operation at the church. This year, Floyd is aiming to collect 10,000 homemade cookies from the community. “And it’s not too late” to contribute, she insisted in a phone interview Thursday. “I’m literally making pie crusts right now!”
Floyd, a longtime Upper West Sider, is married to the church’s pastor and works as a professor of political science at CUNY’s Borough of Manhattan Community College. Some of Floyd’s students volunteer at the Goddard Riverside community Thanksgiving dinner. “They tell stories about how excited people are to get the homemade cookies,” she said. “They’re very touched to have fresh, lovingly made cookies.” People associate Thanksgiving with “abundance,” Floyd said – “everyone has seconds or thirds – so we really try to pile on the desserts.”
The idea of Goddard Riverside’s Thanksgiving dinner is simple, she explained: “They serve whoever wants to eat.” Gibran Mendez, development and communications associate at Goddard Riverside, is one of the event’s producers. According to Mendez, Goddard served 450 people in-person last year and provided additional delivery meals. Their goal, he explained, “is for people to eat in community, to get to know others and have a place that’s warm and nice.” But for those who aren’t ambulatory, or can’t make it in, they offer prepared and packaged meals.
In addition to local food donations, other businesses and groups donate, including local knitting groups. “They’ve brought us scarves to distribute, gloves, hats – I’ve even seen some headbands,” Mendez said. The Thanksgiving meal is prepped, presented and served by volunteers, and they’ve had the “amazing luck that all the roles are filled for this year,” he confirmed. But they still need volunteers for their Christmas meal, and, of course, cookies.
Floyd asked that cookie-bakers sign up online at this link, but it’s also possible to simply bring homemade cookies to the church at 263 West 86th Street this Sunday between 12:30 and 5 p.m. or Tuesday between 4 and 7 p.m. Mendez said they’d also be accepting cookies and pies at Goddard Riverside, 593 Columbus Avenue near West 88th Street, during Thanksgiving week from Monday through Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
After doing this for nearly four decades, through myriad recipes and donors, Floyd says the heart of the work is unchanged. “People need to have some way to give back,” she said. And the need is as real as ever. “It’s a good thing all the way around.”
How to Donate Cookies (Still Open!)
Cookies should be packed in food storage bags of 5–6 cookies per bag. No labels necessary. Nuts are fine. You can drop them off at St Paul & St Andrew United Methodist Church, 263 West 86th Street, on
Sunday 11/23 12:30-5 p.m. or Tuesday, 11/25 4-7 p.m.
Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here. And you can Support the Rag here.
What a beautiful act of kindness!
Wishing all a happy and healthy Thanksgiving!
What a wonderful holiday event! This is truly the spirit of the holidays.
A question for experienced cookie bakers: how far ahead of time can cookies be baked to still be good and tasty?