Good Shepherd Hamilton prepared more than 1,600 Thanksgiving meals for people facing hunger as the organization says demand for food and shelter continues to grow across the city.

Clients were invited to pick up roasted turkey dinners at the Good Shepherd Centre on Mary Street between 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday. The meals included mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, seasonal vegetables, dinner rolls, pumpkin pie, juice and fruit.

Weeks of preparation

CHCH News reported that kitchen staff and volunteers began preparing weeks in advance, cooking and freezing turkeys before assembling the holiday meals. Good Shepherd kitchen supervisor Greg McCausland said 10 full-time kitchen employees are supported by more than 40 volunteers across the centre and its Venture Centre food-bank location.

The organization’s own Thanksgiving campaign page confirms a target of more than 1,600 hot holiday meals. It also reports that 100,563 meals were served at the Good Shepherd Centre last year and that more than 300 new households each month are turning to its grocery programs.

Shelters at or above capacity

Good Shepherd says all of its shelters are operating at or above capacity. Katherine Kalinowski, chief operating officer of Good Shepherd Centres Hamilton, told CHCH that the organization is responding to growing homelessness, mental-health and substance-use challenges as well as a shortage of safe, affordable and supportive housing.

Good Shepherd provides emergency food and clothing, shelters, supportive housing, hospice and palliative care, mental-health programs and services for seniors in Hamilton. Its campaign page says 160 families have a safe place to stay this Thanksgiving and nearly 20,000 nights of shelter were provided through the Men’s Centre dormitory.

The Thanksgiving meal is one part of that wider response. The organization’s figures describe services delivered or planned, not a measure of Hamilton’s total level of food insecurity or homelessness.

Sources: CHCH News, posted October 12 and updated at 1:22 p.m. EDT; Good Shepherd Centres 2026 Thanksgiving campaign; Good Shepherd Centre service page.

Lead image: Good Shepherd Centres, official 2026 Thanksgiving campaign photo; file image, not a photograph of the October 12 meal pickup.