War Vets Prepare, Serve Thanksgiving Dinner to D.C.'s Homeless

WASHINGTON - Shelters all over the region opened up their doors on Thanksgiving Day to prepare food for the homeless, but one group of volunteers in the District not only served those in need, they also served and fought for America in the armed forces as well.

Philip Yunger served in the U.S. Army and for the past 8 years, he has also served Thanksgiving dinners to the homeless at Capitol Hill United Ministry Church. He has been volunteering at several shelters for nearly three decades. As a retired vet, he says it's his duty to volunteer his time.

"This is a sit down dinner, not a chow line," said James Forward, Vietnam War Vet.

Yunger helps organize the dinner with a few of his war vet friends and help from volunteers in the community. "It's almost like a continuation of what we did in the service as we're almost like a long range patrol, scouring around looking for homeless people," said Yunger.

He says its not hard to find the homeless in the D.C. area and the number of homeless veterans motivates him to volunteer. "So you sit down and you listen to their stories and you understand not everybody's as fortunate and now, in this day and age, there's 16,000 homeless people in the Washington area, a third of which are veterans," said Yunger.

The cooking crew started at 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day and prepared enough food to serve 100 people. "This is the best on Capitol Hill as far as I'm concerned," said Eric Silverthorn.

"It's delicious and it's good, and I ain't had a meal like this in so long, and I love it." Arlene Mercer says she comes here every Thanksgiving and has a lot to be thankful for. "I'm just thankful to be alive and able to come down here and eat," said Mercer.

Yunger says he will continue to do this every year and offer his service to those who aren't as fortunate. "Really it just comes down to dishing out hope," said Yunger.

The church hosts the homeless for the entire day. The basement stays open all afternoon and the volunteers bring in a big television for everyone to stick around and watch football. At night, some more volunteers bring in hot dogs, chips and soda for the evening football game.