Free Thanksgiving Meal Serves Our Community
Volunteers from CTR and other churches, people from the Fox Valley community, and community partners all worked together to offer a free meal to our community this Thanksgiving. Altogether, more than 3,150 meals were served to those who would’ve otherwise gone without a meal or spent the day alone. We are so grateful to our volunteers, individual donors and community partners for making the Free Community Thanksgiving Meal at The Grand Meridian possible!
This year:
• 600 volunteers helped for 5-6 months leading up to Thanksgiving, and on the day itself.
• 1,000 pounds of turkey were cooked and served!
• 2,600 volunteer drivers delivered meals to homes, apartments and workplaces, with hundreds more dining in person
Each year, the Free Community Thanksgiving Meal also fills an important need: on the holiday, many county programs and Meals on Wheels are closed. We are glad to serve and to provide meal delivery on Thanksgiving Day for their clients.
One story from the day: A woman who received meal delivery sent a message thanking us, and mentioned that many years ago, she and her mother had volunteered together for multiple years at the Free Thanksgiving Meal. Now she is living with a disability, and her husband is having some health issues — so they called to receive meals this year. It was a “full circle” experience for her to have volunteered in the past, and now be blessed by receiving a meal.
It is a blessing to offer this meal as a gift of love to our community, and live out Jesus’ commands to help those who are hungry and spend time with those who are lonely. And we couldn’t do it without every person who volunteered, donated food or finances, and prayed for every detail.
We also thank our community partners, Fox Communities Credit Union, Hupy & Abraham, N & M Transfer, and The Grand Meridian. And we are grateful to WHBY, WIXX, The Family Radio Network, WBAY-Channel 2, FOX 11, and WFRV-Channel 5 for helping get the word out to the community!
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; His love endures forever. ~Psalm 136:1
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