photo by: Derek Redd

Ray Duane, left, helps hand out free meals Wednesday as Dean Barath and Ideal Provisions distributed meals at Wheeling’s homeless encampment.

WHEELING — By Wednesday afternoon, the temperature had started to drop, the wind whipping around Wheeling’s homeless encampment making it feel even colder. But for dozens of people who had camped in that area, there was a warm meal to enjoy on Thanksgiving Eve.

Dean Barath of Ideal Provisions Food Truck and Catering parked his vehicle at the encampment’s entrance. Along with son Isaac Barath and friend Duane Ray, they passed out aluminum containers filled with Thanksgiving food. The aluminum allowed those eating to reheat their dinners over a campfire without worrying about the container melting.

Barath said he has been handing out meals, and sometimes clothes and other items, around the holidays for more than a decade, for as long as Ideal Provisions has been around.

“It’s more about taking care of everyone right now,” he said.

Wednesday’s menu included turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, corn, green beans, cranberry relish and rolls. Barath said they had handed out meals to between 75 and 80 people this year.

The distribution method has changed over the years, he said. In prior years, they had announced where they would set up and all of the items would be scooped away in minutes – many, Barath said, by those who didn’t really need them.

This year was a quieter event, going to places where they knew people would be hungry.

Examples of kindness shone through Wednesday afternoon. A woman had come up to Barath’s car, asking for a meal for her brother. A resident of the encampment who had two meals in his hands stopped and offered the woman one of his. Barath told him to keep both, that they had enough to help her.

“The compassion of the people over here is totally different,” Barath said. “They won’t take anything more than what’s needed. If they take an extra meal, they might take it back and split it with someone who didn’t get one.”

Barath is worried about the future of those in the encampment. The city is closing the encampment on Dec. 1. Officials say there are enough beds indoors in Wheeling for everyone to get one, with the city and the Salvation Army agreeing to open the Salvation Army’s shelter and house 30 beds for women.

Yet he doesn’t feel the situation around the city is getting better, so he’ll continue doing what he can to help those in need of it.

“I don’t know what the city is going to do with the issue,” he said. “What we can do is just take care of people. If someone needs fed, we’re going to feed them.”