Thanksgiving is just days away and soon, many South Floridians will be sitting down with their loved ones for a delicious meal. But there are many families in need.
Thanks to volunteers in Broward County, hundreds of families will get to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal, too.
Noella Martinez got some much-needed relief with a full Thanksgiving meal delivered to her.
“I’m grateful and may god bless me and my family that I am able to give this food to my family for Thanksgiving,” Martinez told CBS News Miami in Spanish.
Vicki Losasso said the reaction from people getting their Thanksgiving meals is just one reason why she volunteers for the basket brigade. It’s the 33rd year Broward Health’s Children’s Diagnostic and Treatment Center has held the event.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for us to be able to bring the food to these families,” Losasso said. “As some of them don’t have vehicles and don’t have the means to get the food.”
She is one of many volunteers tasked with taking turkeys to homes that need a Thanksgiving meal this year.
Eight hundred families had meals delivered right to their homes. And donations are what make all of this possible. CBS News Miami is told that a $50 donation is enough to feed a family of four.
“We give them all the dozens and then they’ll cook their Thanksgiving meal in their homes,” said Ana Calderon Randazzo, Executive Director of the Children’s Diagnostic and Treatment Center.
Volunteers were up bright and early to load up the meals in volunteers’ cars. CBS News Miami was told the food pantry received $55,000 in donations this year.
“I think families are just very wary of how they’re using their dollars,” Calderon-Randazzo said. “And sometimes families have to choose between feeding their family and paying the rent.”
Losasso said some families don’t have money for food, and some that don’t even have a way to go get it. She said that is something people shouldn’t worry about in the season of giving.
