Community Joins Together In Albany At Annual Equinox Thanksgiving Dinner

Not too far away, at the food trays, stood Norm Shapiro, who was marking his 31st year at the dinner, where he started helping to carve turkeys and now is the chef overseeing the kitchen. At the other end of the crowded room was Anthony Rocco'' Cavaleri, whose family for years ran the popular eponymous Italian restaurant in the Delaware Avenue neighborhood. Called HUGS (an acronym for hats, umbrellas, gloves, and scarves), information about it is found online at http://www.hugs-nyc.org. [...] each table was laid out identically with place settings, floral arrangements, and condiments of black olives, pickles, cranberry sauce, and bread. Equinox volunteers also deliver about 10,000 meals to people throughout the Capital Region via hundreds of volunteer drivers, but the community dinner, said McIlduff, is "the heart of what this is about." There is just such positive energy in this room,'' she said, shortly before belting out God Bless America, followed later by the Woody Guthrie classic This Land is Your Land.