Correspondent photo / Sean Barron . . . Clients with the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner Thursday at the Youngstown facility.

YOUNGSTOWN — In a relatively short time, Joel Savala has transitioned from living in a tent in an encampment for homeless people to living under a solid roof — with plenty of room for extra gratitude.

“I gave up on life,” Savala, 46, a five-month cook with the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley, said.

A few short years ago, Savala was living in such conditions near Tracy, California, and also was battling depression, drug addiction and feelings of brokenness and emptiness. Compounding his plight was that he also had no contact with his wife during that period before she found him, then brought him back to the Mahoning Valley, Savala recalled.

“She said, ‘Let’s move to Ohio and start over,'” he said.

Since making the 2,400-mile move east, Savala has turned his life around significantly, thanks in large part to his faith in God and the love of Jesus Christ, he added.

Savala also has converted that faith and love to action — specifically, by being among those who contributed to a two-part Thanksgiving meal Thursday afternoon at the mission, 1300 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., near downtown.

One meal each that consisted of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans, rolls and pumpkin pie was served to the mission’s clients and to the larger community.

Among those happy to be on the serving end of the counter was Suzanne Smith of Hubbard, who has faced her own share of trials and tribulations — the greatest of which was having lost both parents within a month of each other in 2021. As a result, she has relatives and friends but no immediate family members in the area.

Despite working through the stages of grief, she is in a better frame of mind to decorate for and celebrate the holidays, which means reaching beyond herself, Smith said.

“I do love helping others,” Smith, who also spent time caring for her mother, added. “They do a great job here, and I’m grateful for the food.”

The volunteer bug also had bitten Vivien Hallman of Liberty, who accompanied Smith as two of the dinner’s main servers. Hallman is happy to perform such work whenever the need and opportunity arises, she said.

For Mike Byers, occasions such as Thursday’s holiday feast is about more than serving a hot meal to some of those in need. It also has a spiritual component.

“For me, it’s a time to reflect on how fulfilling the Lord’s been to us down here,” Byers, the mission’s food-services director, said.

Hosting such a meal is invaluable for Byers also because he has seen an uptick in the need for food. The Rescue Mission typically serves about 400 meals per day, but Thursday’s gathering was likely to draw 600 to 700 people, he estimated.

Contributing largely to the greater need has been inflation that includes higher grocery costs. He has seen many people “strapped to pay for day-to-day food,” Byers said.

Nevertheless, the primary, overarching goal behind Thursday’s dinner was to proclaim Christ’s love for others, which includes his compassion for those in need, Byers said, adding that he hopes those who are temporarily calling the mission home will leave with a greater degree of self-sufficiency.

A variety of clients, including entire families and more than 30 children, are at the Rescue Mission, something that shines a brighter light on the fact that anyone can potentially be in a difficult situation, he said.

“We all could be one paycheck away from being in need,” Byers added.

He also thanked the facility’s donors and volunteers for their contributions and donations to keep things running.

“We can’t do what we do without them,” Byers said.