Feed the City; An Annual Thanksgiving Outreach in Winston-Salem

By Jessica Thomas Lewis

So grateful for this opportunity. 

By 11:30am, we had packed more than 800 meals for shut-ins, the indigent and homeless. 

These were hot meals; turkey, stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and a roll.  Packed by volunteers in hopes of touching the lives of those who wouldn't otherwise have a Thanksgiving meal.

All told, we fed 1,400 people through Feed the City, an annual Thanksgiving outreach.

Organized by Flow Automotive and St. Paul UMC, this initiative brings Flow employees, church members and others together to quickly prepare and deliver the meals to such places as Crystal Towers and Healy Towers on Thanksgiving Day.  The group of volunteers included young men from Winston-Salem Preparatory Academy.  I was there with my daughters, ages 6 and 10.  Everyone had a specific duty.  I carried two trays at a time down the line and each food item was ladled in as I went.  My daughters were at the end of the line with another young girl, placing a sheet of parchment across the food, and added a roll and packaged utensils.   A piece of pie went out with each meal.  

It does this Mama's heart proud that my children thanked me for bringing them today to pack those meals.  

From there, we went to my sister's house, where she hosted her first Thanksgiving and we found out that they're expecting their second child!  So excited for this new niece or nephew; we'll have a full baseball team of cousins and we're blessed to be close.   

 Be grateful, give back and be blessed.  Happy Thanksgiving, y'all.