Chef Garcia Shapes Feast for 10,000

Frank Garcia didn’t mind staying up all night to roast hundreds of turkeys, stir up gallons of gravy and make sure everything was cooking just right for his annual Thanksgiving Day feast.

It’s his way of giving thanks.

Garcia will hold his fourth annual “We Give Thanks” celebration today, serving free turkey dinners out of the parking lot of his Anaheim restaurant, La Casa Garcia.

“We open the doors to anybody,” said Garcia, 48, who also owns several Mexican fast-food stands where turkey and all the fixings will be given away. “We serve people who are lonely, homeless and don’t have a place to go.”

He plans to feed 10,000 people this Thanksgiving Day, the same as last year.

“I started doing it because I started thinking about people who don’t have a turkey,” he said, recalling the first feast in 1989 when he served 300 turkeys to 3,500 people.

In addition to serving turkey dinners at his five restaurants in Anaheim, Tustin and Garden Grove, for the first time, Garcia is bringing the American tradition of giving thanks to people who live in the Jeffrey-Lynne neighborhood, a mostly Latino apartment community near Disneyland.

Because there were problems last year in arranging transportation for residents, Garcia decided that he would bring the food to them. Many of the residents are low-wage earners and would probably go without celebrating the holiday, otherwise. “They can’t afford to do it,” he said.

Terri Rivera, community service supervisor at the Jeffrey-Lynne Neighborhood Center, says Garcia’s idea is a good one.

“It’s a blessing,” she said.

The community dinner with all the trimmings will be served at Audre Plaza Park, 1633 S. Jeffrey St. Garcia said he plans to feed about 3,000 residents there.

In addition, Garcia and his staff of about 600 volunteers will be serving dinners from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at La Casa Garcia, 531 W. Chapman Ave. at Harbor Boulevard in Anaheim.

Dinners will also be served at his four taco stands, Panchito’s Taqueria: 13048 Chapman Ave. and 9522 W. Chapman Ave., Garden Grove; 14141 Red Hill Ave., Tustin; and 30 E. Orangethorpe Ave., Anaheim.

Entertainment, including Mexican bands, mariachis and folklorico dancers will be featured at La Casa Garcia.

For this year’s dinner, Garcia received donations from more than 50 area companies. He estimated the cost of the celebration at about $100,000.

For chef Garcia, there are no shortcuts or substitutes in cooking a turkey meal. “Everything I do is fresh because I like to keep the tradition the way it was,” he said.

For today’s feast, Garcia was to roast 700 turkeys, cook 5,000 pounds of potatoes, make 300 pounds of gravy, 100 gallons of cranberry sauce, serve 15,000 pumpkin pies and pastries, and dish up hundreds of pounds of fresh-picked green beans.

The response from the community and other donors is why Garcia has continued the annual feed.

“I’m the leader, but everybody is behind me,” he said. “If everybody would give a plate to their next door neighbor, there would be no hunger in the world.”

Garcia said that helping others makes him feel good. “I feel beautiful. I feel like a new person, like God gave me a new life . . . ,” he said. “ I’ve been blessed by God and I believe in him 100%.”

Turkey on the Menu

Dinner will also be served at Panchito’s Taqueria:

13048 Chapman Ave. and 9522 W. Chapman Ave., Garden Grove

14141 Red Hill Ave., Tustin

30 E. Orangethorpe Ave., Anaheim