Ball State University Organizations Donate Over 500 Pounds of Food for Thanksgiving Food Drive
Our first story of altruism comes directly from the Ball State University community. Each November, the BSU Peace Center organizes a food drive to benefit a local food bank. This year was no exception, but we expected the pandemic – especially its impact on the number of faculty, staff, and students on campus – to dampen participation. It did not. In fact, this was one of our most successful drives yet. With the assistance of various departments and organizations across campus, we collected over 200 cans of food, 79 boxes of pasta, 20 boxes of cereal, 28 jars of peanut butter and jelly, 55 bags of rice and beans, 60 snack items, and 71 miscellaneous food items. We also collected 50 toiletry items. This amounted to over 500 pounds of items to donate to the food pantry. Too many have experienced loss during the 2020 pandemics, but we are heartened by the tremendous display of generosity from our community and wish to express our deepest gratitude to all who participated.
Formerly Homeless Man Donates 2500 Thanksgiving Feasts to Families in Need
For part of his childhood – long before his successful career as a real estate agent – Rob Adams and his family experienced a period of homelessness during which they lived in the covered bed of his family pickup truck. Adams recalled that he often went to bed without dinner. “My big meal of the day was school lunch,” he said. But just before the holidays that year, a local family who attended the same church offered their home to the Adamses while they were out of town. The family stocked the fridge with homemade holiday fixings and left presents under the tree for their guests. Adams recalls that he broke down crying when he opened the refrigerator. “Unless you’ve been hungry, you can’t imagine how I felt,” he said. He vowed that he would do that for someone else one day if he had the means. Now, 38 years later, Adams has upheld that vow. In 2015, Adams started a nonprofit called Thanksgiving’s Heroes that organizes volunteers to feed food insecure families across the country. That year, he was able to donate 755 Thanksgiving meals, but the initiative has expanded each year. This year, the nonprofit gave away 2,500 boxes to families in the Salt Lake Valley, where Adams lives, and each 53-pound box was packed with a Thanksgiving feast comprising a 20-pound turkey, 10 pounds of potatoes, a package of butter, a gallon of milk, a tray of vegetables, cranberry sauce, fixings for stuffing, gravy, olives, a pumpkin pie, whipped cream, and the ingredients for green bean casserole (Adams’ favorite side dish).
Source: The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/11/24/formerly-homeless-this-man-is-giving-away-2500-thanksgiving-meals-this-year/
University of Iowa Lecturer Delivers Thanksgiving Meals to her Students
Professor Elizabeth “Liz” Pearce of University of Iowa was worried about her students. It had been a difficult, lonely semester for many, given the restrictions imposed to stem the spread of COVID-19, and Pearce knew that the pandemic would force some students to celebrate in quarantine. “I was afraid many of them might be spending the holiday alone, without a proper Thanksgiving meal… I’m a mom and wouldn’t want anybody to feel alone and sad.” Many area businesses that employed students had been closing because of the pandemic, so a lot of her students had also lost their sources of income. Pearce decided to take them all under her wing for the holiday. She drafted an email to all 130 of her students offering them a homecooked family dinner, explaining that her four kids had all volunteered to make extra portions of everything they were planning to serve at their own family meal. The professor’s kindness drew attention. A lot of attention. One of her students tweeted a screen capture of the email with the caption “My professor is absolutely too pure for this world.” Within a few hours, the post had over 1 million likes and 70k retweets. “It was just such a warm and fuzzy moment, and I wanted to share it,” the author of the post said, “I was so blown away with the response and how many people were as touched with Dr. Pearce’s act of kindness as I was.” Pearce, who has a reputation for being engaged with and compassionate toward her students, said it was “no big deal” to offer the holiday feast: “I just wanted everyone to know that there was room at my virtual table.”
Source: The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/11/25/professor-thanksgiving-viral-covid/