Kurt Mullins is used to preparing meals for the wealthy and prosperous, but this year he cooked 57 turkeys for Shepherd’s House Ministries’ Thanksgiving dinner.

“I was sick of serving the 1%,” he said, explaining his decision to move from fine hotel dining to working with nonprofits. Shepherd’s House{span} does outreach and provides services to homeless people and communities in Central Oregon.

On Wednesday, instead of serving immaculately plated meals, Mullins was running trays of green bean casseroles and homemade cranberry sauce to the massive serving line at Shepherd’s House day room.

At the serving line was Roseann Dennery and her two daughters, ages 8 and 11.

The three have been volunteering for Shepherd’s House Ministries for about a year and a half since relocating from Phoenix, Arizona.

“We found Shepherd’s House, and it felt very accessible. I wanted something I could do with my kids — something that we could be consistent with and build relationships with people,” said Dennery.

“We’ve gotten to know some of the people we serve regularly that live at the shelter, and it’s been a really meaningful experience for all of us to be involved.”

Evan Hendrix, director of navigation services for Shepherd’s House, said the organization planned to serve 150 to 200 people on Wednesday at the day room alone. More meals, though not necessarily Thanksgiving meals, will also be served at the nonprofit’s Franklin Avenue shelter and its new location in Redmond.

Hendrix said everyone there Wednesday — volunteers, staff and attendees — came for the same purpose: to gain a sense of unity and to share a delicious Thanksgiving meal.

“Anytime we can create safe spaces for people to gather around tables, specifically with food, there’s something magical in that,” Hendrix said. “A lot of the judgments, a lot of the preconceived notions, a lot of the bias really tends to fade away. Not all of it, because we know that Thanksgiving can be notorious for political conversations, but at least in our experience, we really see people come together and sit down and break bread together.”

Hendrix said a lot of coordination went into preparing a Thanksgiving feast for 200 people. In the week leading up to the meal, crews prepared the turkeys and sides at Shepherd’s House’s new professional-grade kitchen in Redmond.

Then, there’s coordinating volunteers on the day of to serve, clear and direct people through the buffet line.

Earlier Wednesday, James Wideman helped volunteers set up tables and prepare for this momentous meal. Wideman has been living at Shepherd’s House shelter, Lighthouse Navigation Center, since early July. He feels it’s important to give back to the organization by volunteering his time during daily meals.

“I feel like I’m doing something,” he said. “It makes me feel important.”

Aside from the holiday times, Shepherd’s House serves three meals a day at its day room at 181 NE Franklin Ave. Breakfast is served daily between 7 and 8:30 a.m., lunch from noon to 1:30 p.m. and then dinner is served daily around 6:30 p.m. at the Lighthouse center.

“This is our way of telling the community of Bend, these are people, these are our friends, these are our neighbors. These are members of our community that deserve the dignity and have worth and value that most of us get when we go home to our own tables for Thanksgiving or whatever other events or holidays we celebrate. And we want to invite people into that with us,” Hendrix said.