BlogLab

At noon on Christmas, Robert Martin arrived for lunch at Central Union Mission in downtown Washington. At the door, a man handed him a bottle of water and a brown paper bag containing a bologna and cheese sandwich on white bread, an apple, granola bars and a candy cane.

Before the coronavirus, Martin would have been invited into the dining room with dozens of other visitors for a free holiday feast. This year, as a precaution against the virus, no one was allowed into the mission except its residents.

“I’m a diabetic. I can’t have sugar,” said Martin, 78, in a jean jacket with a black patch over his right eye, removing the granola bars and the candy cane from the bag. Then he went on his way.

As much as family gatherings for festive dinners and opening gifts are annual Christmas rites, so is feeding and giving gifts to the poor, with churches and charitable organizations offering care to masses of needy strangers.

Advertisement

Yet just as the pandemic upended the holiday for those who were comfortable, it altered what was available for those in need as they navigated a raw, wintry day in which temperatures sank into the low 30s.

At the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Northeast Washington, the largest Catholic church building in North America, the cafeteria that would normally host close to 1,000 people on Christmas was empty. Instead, volunteers boxed 500 meals for anyone who showed up and delivered 1,500 more to the homebound who had signed up.

Monsignor Walter Rossi, the church rector, said regulations imposed because of the pandemic made it possible to allow less than 5 percent of the 14,000 people who would typically attend Masses.

“We miss everything about Christmas this year,” he said. “It’s very vacant, shall we say.”

Advertisement

But the monsignor also said the holiday’s meaning remains even if this year’s rituals are different. “Christmas comes no matter what,” he said. “There’s no reason for depression. The birth of Jesus is meant to lift us out of our depression, and give us hope and new life.”

At the same time, the suffering that the pandemic is driving is unmistakable. Millions of Americans face the imminent loss of unemployment benefits and the end of a moratorium on evictions.

In D.C., long lines form for free food such as the groceries that one organization, Francis on the Hill, distributes twice a week around Columbia Heights. When the group started the food giveaways in March, it served about 40 families, said Raleigh Miller, a volunteer.

During the week before Christmas, Francis on the Hill handed out food to 400 families.

Advertisement

“There are more and more people lining up and there are more and more people needing help,” Miller said.

At Central Union Mission, Kenneth W. White, the organization’s chaplain, said he missed the crowd that would normally come for the Christmas meal and gifts such as sweaters and long johns. Nevertheless, he said there were still the mission’s 40 to 50 residents to feed this year.

“You still get the joy of serving, the opportunity to make an impact,” he said. “It gives me a chance to be a chaplain and to really hear them.”

One man who showed up at the mission on Christmas said he had slept the previous night at a shelter in Silver Spring. He wanted food and took a hat and a pair of gloves.

After he left, Abraham Gomez arrived, wearing a sweatshirt and ripped jeans.

“I’m hungry,” Gomez told the chaplain, who returned with food, a hat and gloves.

Advertisement

“It’s cold, man,” Gomez said before heading off to find a shelter.

A few blocks away, George Papakostas, 48, a Rockville real estate agent, was wandering downtown in a minivan with his wife and three children. In the back of the van, there were 20 gift-wrapped boxes they were giving to people camped out in doorways and tents.

Inside each box was a sweater, socks, undershirts, water, mints and granola bars. There was also a copy of the Gospel of John.

“Merry Christmas!” Papakostas said, greeting a man on Seventh Street NW.

The family had considered staying home this year because of the coronavirus, but decided they needed to “try and engage,” he said. “I wanted to teach my kids to serve others. It’s not about them.”

Along the way, they met Derek and Malika Covington, also handing out gifts with their son, Mekhi, who is 8.

Advertisement

“Christmas isn’t about receiving toys,” Malika Covington told her son. “It’s about sharing and giving love.”

Their gifts included socks, masks and 7-Eleven gift cards.

“A gift card — that’s a great idea,” Papakostas said as the Covingtons handed their present to a man sitting on folded insulation in a doorway on New Jersey Avenue NW.

“You can use the gift card to get coffee,” Malika Covington told him.

From behind his mask, the man’s eyes brightened.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLmwr8ClZp2bXaW8rbXTopqsZ5%2BjeqJ5wqitopxdmLWztdKtpJqrXZZ6r7HWZqmoraSeu6Z5xaipZp6VmrGqusZmq6GdXZ28rrHLnqqsZ2Jlf3F7kGtma21fmIWjsZFtbpplZGuwenmQapybZWlsgqR5w2pum3BoZoKigpWdlqysn6fGb7TTpqM%3D