Volunteers provide Thanksgiving meals to those in need

JACKSON, Tenn. — Communities in need received an early Thanksgiving surprise.

Men on the Move, along with students from local high schools in Jackson, delivered Thanksgiving meals to those in need.

“We’re doing our annual Thanksgiving dinner. We’ve been doing this for about 15 years. What we do is, just feed people during Thanksgiving. It’s an opportunity to give back to the community, and today we’ll be going out delivering meals to over 300 people,” said city Councilman Johnny Dodd.

Students volunteering to collect hours for their college application process put together the 300 meals alongside Senator Ed Jackson.

“This is a day of thanksgiving. This is a day to give back and to be thankful for what we have in this country, in our state, in our city and county, and we have a lot to be thankful for. We have a lot that is going on with COVID, and we just need to try to help each other,” Jackson said.

Multiple cars were being piled with food going to various communities. Volunteers say this is even more important during the pandemic.

“It is because everybody has to stay in the house and some people may not be able to travel all the way to grocery stores,” said Khadaja Rivers, a student volunteer.

Volunteers visited many neighborhoods in east Jackson, showing them that people still care.

“Right now, with this pandemic, you have some family members [who] have lost three family members in this year with this coronavirus. So we just want to honor the people and just thank them and honor them and just say thank you and just want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving,” Dodd said.

Those who received a meal were very grateful. Some even said this is the only meal they’ve had in a while, let alone having any meals set for Thanksgiving.

Dodd says he wants to thank all of the high school volunteers who came out to help. He says it’s important for them to see that little things can make a huge impact.