Homeless Joined by Others for Free Meals : Thanksgiving: This year the working poor and the long-term unemployed are also fed by various Ventura County organizations.

Bill Pratt said he did not have very much to be thankful for this year.

Unemployed for more than a year, the 53-year-old former bank clerk from Newbury Park said he has been struggling to survive since his jobless benefits ran out in July.

Although he has applied for 13 weeks of extended benefits approved in a bill recently signed by President Bush, Pratt said he has little reason to be hopeful about the future.

“It’s getting worse out there. There’s just always too many people applying for every job,” Pratt said as he finished eating a free Thanksgiving meal at the Knights of Columbus Lodge in Ventura Thursday.

The homeless have been the most obvious beneficiaries of the heaping plates of turkey with all the trimmings provided by organizations across Ventura County, but this year they were joined by the working poor and the long-term unemployed.

“We’ve had a really high turnout this year, at least as many people as in previous years,” Lillian Lopez said as she looked for salad dressing in a kitchen pantry at the Zoe Christian Center in Oxnard. The center expected to serve 1,200 to 1,500 meals.

The difference between this year and the other five years Lopez has worked on the annual Thanksgiving Day feast, she said, is that she has seen so many families desperately trying to make ends meet.

“I had one man come in here and say he wanted five dinners to take home to his family, so they could eat together at their own table.

“Then he said he was going to another place and asking for five more, so the family would have something to eat tomorrow,” she added. “One way or another we’re feeding more of them.”

Armita Matron, an unemployed maid, and Carlos Gonzales, a mechanic, both of Oxnard, were also among those taking extra plates of food home. The abandoned Oxnard house the couple have been living in for several months does not have gas or electricity, so they cook over an open fire in an adjacent field.

“This helps a lot,” Matron said as a volunteer put two foil-wrapped plates on the table in front of her. “We want to save some money and move to L.A., to get married and get jobs again. Even though Carlos works, we’re just not making it right now.”

The flow of volunteers and food donors overwhelmed the Knights of Columbus this year, said Grand Knight John C. Hill, who helped organize the dinner.

More than 200 volunteers, including contingents from Ventura High School and Ventura College, helped serve meals, and countless others donated food, Hill said.

The story was similar at the Zoe center, where 20 to 25 students from Oxnard High School’s Peer Helpers Club served food, washed dishes and bused tables.

“I get a lot of satisfaction knowing that I came out here and helped people out,” 16-year-old Oxnard High junior Diane Calleros said as she layered slices of turkey onto plates in the 15-person assembly line.

“I feel lucky that I’m going to have my dinner later tonight with my family, and that I have a bed and a place to live, when all these people don’t,” said Andre Johnson, another 16-year-old junior.

Some of those who ate the meals also helped out.

Phil and Vi Casanta of Ventura made a $10 donation before walking through the meal line at the Knights of Columbus lodge. “Instead of going out to some restaurant and giving them the money, we figured we’d come here,” Vi Casanta said.

“Our children are all up in Northern California, so it just made more sense to come here,” Phil Casanta said.

The Oxnard National Guard Armory opened its doors to the homeless Thursday night, providing a second Thanksgiving meal to many of the homeless who showed up, as well as a warm bed for the night.

Bobby Lee, an Oxnard man who has been homeless for seven years, said he was grateful for the annual attention shown to the homeless on Thanksgiving. “If you’re on the streets, there’s not a lot of places where you can eat. So it’s good that they all go to this trouble,” he said.

However, Lee, who ate meals at the Zoe center and at an Oxnard church earlier in the day, wished that the hospitality shown to the homeless was more open-ended.

“Once a year, that’s it. The rest of the time we hardly exist in a lot of these people’s minds.”