Some of the best darn Thanksgiving grub around could be had where there were no kitchens, no dining room tables, and no roofs.

These places included railroad tracks on Mini Drive, under a bridge on Mare Island Way, near King’s Market on Fairgrounds Drive, Sonoma Boulevard under Highway 37 or an alley behind a closed health club.

Sites the well-off avoid at all costs. But usual homes to the homeless, where Vallejo Together zeroed in Thursday, delivering 200 meals to the “non-housed.”

Another 100 meals were dropped off at the Moose Lodge for drive-through pick-up. And 400 more delivered to six senior complexes.

And another day continuing the legacy of Vallejo Together’s late founder, Maria Guevara.

Count Marty Duvall as one of the disciples. When his job evaporated with the pandemic, the lifetime Benician needed to put his time to good use. As a long-time friend of Vallejo Together’s executive director Francie McInerney MacMillan, Duvall found a cause.

“I’m here to help Francie with her mission. We’re doing good work,” said Duvall, preparing to load up his vehicle mid-morning Thursday at First Baptist Church downtown.

Vallejo Together hit around 30 sites on three separate routes, some locations to deliver to as many as 40 homeless … and some for one.

“There’s a lot of gratefulness on both sides,” Duvall said. “I’m grateful I can keep myself busy in this way. There’s a lot of kindness from both sides.”

“There’s one word I think of from day one — ‘thankful’ — that makes me cry right now,” said an emotional Duvall. “It’s how thankful people are. The gratitude is out there. People say ‘thankyou’ and they really mean it.”

Duvall — and most of the other Vallejo Together volunteers — are on a first-name basis with many of the city’s homeless.

“People’s futures are so uncertain and so is the present,” Duvall said. “When I go where I expect them to be and they’re not there, I miss them. I might see them while I’m driving down the street somewhere else in town. They’re trying to live as normal life as they can.”

Duvall said “kindness” and “fearlessness” is a common thread with those who deliver meals to the homeless.

“You don’t know any of these people until you start going around on these routes. You’re not quite sure what to do at first,” Duvall said. “Once in a while, the clients react badly. But you get in there and do what needs to be done.”

Comparing his hometown of Benicia with Vallejo “is apples and oranges,” said Duvall, and though most Benicians probably “don’t know the particulars” of Vallejo’s homeless challenges, “many of the kitchens that provided these meals are just people’s houses in Benicia. There is a strong contingent of Benicia people supporting Vallejo Together.”

It’s nearing 11:30 a.m. Roughly 30 volunteers that included a group from AmeriCorps were part of an assembly line putting turkey, sweet potatoes, beans, mashed potatoes and stuffing into containers.

Kristy Juliano, a retired Solano Community College music director, took her place in the line and then led a group that included her daughter, Kiera, to about 10 stops.

Though volunteering three days a week for Vallejo Together, there was something different about serving the community on Thanksgiving, said Juliano.

“I appreciate celebrating a day of gratitude,” she said. And that includes getting to know those she helps on a personal level.

“One guy has gout. He has a big hole in his foot. I’m trying to find some orthopedic shoes he can wear,” Juliano said.

Delivering meals “can be exhausting on many levels,” she continued. “There’s an emotional response. I am grateful I have the time and the energy and the well-being to be able to go and help others. I’ve always wanted to do that.”

Brenda Stevens didn’t have to volunteer for Vallejo Together to understand the homeless. She was there once, living on the streets in Richmond. Stevens was already bringing meals to the hungry as part of Power of Praise Ministry Church “when I decided to come out and volunteer” with McInerney MacMillan.

“I enjoy it. It’s a passion for me,” Stevens said. “I just wanted to fit in where I have a passion and go out and feed the homeless.”

Helping on Thanksgiving “is a blessing,” Stevens added. “It’s something I enjoy doing. I thank God I’m able to go out and help the community.”

“Coming from the streets myself … being homeless … you appreciate what you have,” Stevens said. “It’s just a pleasure to go out and be a servant.”