OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Thanksgiving is only a few days away, if you're hosting, that turkey is probably thawing in the fridge. Not everyone is able to buy a turkey this year.
Monday morning, Catholic Charities passed out 165 Thanksgiving meal kits.
“Bringing people together through food,” Mikaela Schuele, Director of Emergency and Supportive Food Services, Catholic Charities said. “Being able to make the food together as a family is something that is cherished by all communities and should be something that all families are able to do.”
“A lot of them they need this,” Wilford Smith, Volunteer said. “This is a helpful thing for the community and it helps the people that are disabled, unemployed.”
Smith knows how quickly a family's circumstances can change.
“I was disabled in a car accident and since then they're never given me the ability to go back to work,” Smith said.
It's been three years, he said Thursday would have been a struggle with out this meal kit.
“It means my family is going to be happy,” Smith said. “We're going to have a nice turkey, a nice dinner everyone is going to be happy. I do have a pretty big family there is 6 of us.”
After picking up his own thanksgiving dinner, Smith came back to volunteer.
“I wanted to help out the people that have helped me,” he said.
Smith smiles as he collects tickets in the turkey pickup line. The pressure is off. He knows they'll all be able to have a good meal with their families this Thanksgiving.
Catholic Charities was able to create the meal kits with the help of donations from St. Charles Borromeo, Knights of Columbus, St. Columbkille, Holy Family, St. Stephen the Martyr, Hy-Vee, and Rotella's Bakery. Students and staff from College of Saint Mary and the St. John Paul II Newman Center at UNO volunteered to sort and assemble meal kits. Members of the Coast Guard volunteered to help distribute the kits.
