Hope Ministries provides Thanksgiving meals to those in need

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind., --- Hope Ministries provided nearly 1,000 Thanksgiving meals to those in need. The organization still helping to feed the community after 27 years.

“Oh, it means a lot to me cause I’m here by myself and this makes me feel like you know somebody cares,” said Evelean Grantham, a Karl King Tower.

Grantham is one of the many homebound elderly residents at Karl King Tower that was grateful to get a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal delivered Thursday.

Volunteers at Hope Ministries lined up early Thursday morning and worked like a conveyer belt. They packed turkey, stuffing, pie, and more in to-go boxes and loaded them up to be hand-delivered to the community and given to residents at Hope.

“Today we’re going to prepare about 1000 meals,  just under 1000 meals about 650 of them are going to the apartments and to the residents in the community, another 150 are going to be going to our feeding sites,” said Steve Matteson, the Director of Community Relations at Hope Ministries.

“We’re sending them to a lot of different places, Karl King, to MC3, to people that are in the hotels that they put up too. Many homes where they might not have a meal so they’re going to be able to enjoy Thanksgiving and actually be thankful,” added long-time volunteer John Kabzinski.

Kabzinski has been helping volunteer on Thanksgiving for 21 years with his family, and he said Thursday’s work takes on an extra special meaning for them.

“My family we made this a tradition. My daughter is actually here also and it’s her 19th year and she’s only 27-years-old, and we unfortunately lost my son about six years ago and since then they’ve been giving away a Tyler Kabzinski outstanding volunteer award which we really look forward to every year,” he explained.

From veteran volunteers, to first timers, from old, to young, from packers to deliverers, nearly 150 people all came together for the same purpose.

“I realize this world is crazy, so people out here cold and nowhere to go so just to help feed them, so I just want to help volunteer,” said high school freshman and first-time volunteer Robert Jones.

“It’s tough because we go through every day knowing where our next meal is going to come from for the most part and they don’t have that so one day I can come and do that or even a week throughout the year that’s nothing,” added 12-year volunteer Sebastian Boling.

Hope ministries received donations from Notre Dame, Cultivate, and other donors in the community to make Thursday’s Thanksgiving meals happen.

If you’d like to volunteer to pack or deliver meals on thanksgiving or anytime of the year click here.