With an unexpected extra mouth to feed, a Greenwood woman was grateful to get some help putting together a Thanksgiving meal for her family.
Jessica Broaddus recently received emergency custody of her nephew. With eight people to feed on Thanksgiving Day, she said it would be tough to find the money for the meal without help.
Her family was one of about 250 families who received food to prepare a Thanksgiving meal from a Center Grove area church on Sunday.
SS. Francis & Clare Catholic Church has been giving local families food to prepare a Thanksgiving meal for more than 20 years, said Jerry Dean, a volunteer helping organize the event.
"It is a beautiful experience helping a family have a joyous and happy Thanksgiving," he said.
For three hours on Sunday evening, hundreds of people made their way through a line passing by tables stacked with holiday food. About 100 volunteers helped push shopping carts, hand out food and take the food out to cars in the parking lot.
At the end of the line, one volunteer, Jennifer McCarty, was asking families if they had anything she could pray with them about.
Meeting people’s spiritual needs matters as much as making sure they are fed, she said.
The families received all the necessities to prepare a Thanksgiving meal. Each was provided with a turkey, canned goods, produce, rolls and other items for a total of about $100 worth of food, Dean said.
For one Franklin woman, this was the only way she could provide a Thanksgiving meal for her fiance and 18-month-old grandson. This year was her first time coming to the giveaway, and it will be the first year she will be celebrating Thanksgiving with her grandson.
"It means quite a lot," Tia Leap said.
The church gathers enough food to feed hundreds of families by providing its members with grocery bags and a list of items to purchase, Dean said.
The church also operates a food shelf, which provides meals to 450 people a month, he said.
The goal for the food giveaway on Sunday was to provide a special meal on Thanksgiving Day for families and to give them a little extra throughout the week, he said
For Roger Burton, who is retired and receives Social Security payments, providing his family with a nice Thanksgiving meal wouldn’t be possible otherwise.
The Brooklyn, Indiana, man will be preparing a meal for five to feed his wife, two sons and granddaughter, all who live with him.
"We do our best to help each other out," he said.
Any food that wasn’t given away Sunday will still go to good use, Dean said.
Extra items will be donated to a veterans home. The church also provides turkeys for the annual Thanksgiving day meal at the Johnson County fairgrounds, he said.
Besides giving away food, 30 families were also signed up to visit the Catholic Charities Christmas Store, Dean said.
They’ll be able to get clothing, toys and other gifts for Christmas, he said.
