Volunteers help feed more than 200 people at Salvation Army Burbank’s Thanksgiving meal

As he left the free Thanksgiving dinner hosted by the Salvation Army Burbank Corps on Wednesday evening, local resident Herminio Rivera thanked the volunteers as he passed.

“It’s how I was raised,” he said later.

Rivera was one of more than 200 people who stopped by to enjoy some turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce and — in a departure from traditional pumpkin pie — guava or cream-cheese pastries provided by Porto’s Bakery.

As the tables were cleared from the first seating of 120 guests and a nearly equal number was being seated and served, Lee Stacy, a Salvation Army advisory board member, said there was a better turnout than last year, when 170 were served.

He said it’s because the Burbank Corps’ new leadership, husband and wife Jeremy and Brittany Baker, are “just on fire.”

“This is a lot more successful than last year, and last year was a success,” Stacy said.

The Aramark Corp. provided the linens, and staff members at the Holiday Inn of Burbank cooked the food. More than 45 volunteers, including groups from Bellarmine-Jefferson High School and Woodbury University’s Rotaract Club as well as Sunrise Rotary Club members, helped serve and clean up.

The diners included “everyone from homeless to middle class,” said Jeremy Baker, while Brittany Baker said some guests were clients of the Burbank Corps or participants in various programs the local Salvation Army offers.

“Many of them are very new to us,” Brittany Baker said, adding that they were being referred by the Burbank Temporary Aid Center and the city’s parks and recreation staff.

This year was the second year the dinner was offered at the Burbank Corps after a four-year hiatus. Stacy said that the organization is working “to get the army back strong” and will undertake a long-delayed effort to spruce up its dining room and kitchen early next year, with the goal of offering it for rentals.

Rivera said he had been to Salvation Army dinners before, when his grown children were young and he was raising them as a single parent. This year, he was referred to the dinner, he said, by the circle of other homeless and struggling Burbank residents who gather near the Central Library.

He described the group as a kind of circle of philosophers who share tips on resources and jobs or socialize and tell life stories, and otherwise “watch out for one another.” It’s important for those who have come on hard times from illness, disability or other difficulty finding or keeping jobs to have people to relate to who are “on the same level,” he said.

The 58-year-old former film-processing technician said he’s had trouble finding work due to the transition to digital media. This may be his last year at the Thanksgiving dinner, though, as he plans to move to Washington state, where he thinks he may have more opportunities to find work making guitars, a hobby he’s enjoyed since he was 15 years old.

Rivera said he plans to get help from the Burbank Corps to contact Salvation Army officials in Olympia, Wash., for help getting settled and finding a job when he moves north.

Before volunteering, Edric Orta, 17, had no idea there was a Salvation Army in Burbank, he said. The president of the Bellarmine-Jefferson Associated Student Body said he and other student body leaders volunteered to help with the dinner to set an example for others.

Orta, who was either zipping around the room delivering trays of food or joking with some of his classmates while filling the next tray, said he comes from a family that has had two Thanksgiving dinners — one for each side of his family — for as long as he can remember.

“We literally have too much food at my house,” he said.

He said he was there to help give a Thanksgiving dinner to those who wouldn’t otherwise have even one holiday meal.

Gus Quiroga and his wife weren’t volunteering as part of a club, but they came as a family with their son and daughter and their daughter’s friend. Quiroga said it was a way to honor the family’s mission statement, which they keep on the fireplace mantel.

“We strive to create an enriching environment for our children,” Quiroga said, which includes “enriching the society we live in.”

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Chad Garland, chad.garland@latimes.com

Twitter: @chadgarland