NEW ORLEANS — Whether you’re eating store-bought turkey or grandma’s apple pie, many people will share a family meal this Thursday, but not everyone has a table full of loved ones or money to splurge at the grocery store.
That’s why New Orleans Women and Children’s Shelter is donating a full Thanksgiving spread to families in need.
On Thursday, Hannah Boyland and her three daughters will get in their kitchen and whip up their first holiday traditions.
“I’m going to let this one come in here and help me cook this Thanksgiving,” Former Women and Children’s Shelter resident Hannah Boyland said.
For the Boyland girls, the holidays weren’t always this merry and bright.
“I moved down here, and I was homeless in Memphis. I was down here two days before I got put in a shelter,” Boyland said.
The 46-year-old says everything changed when the Women and Children’s Shelter opened their doors and hearts to her family.
“I didn’t have no direction, but these women they were patient with me,” Boyland said.
From turkey to mac and cheese and all the fixings in between, the shelter donated a full Thanksgiving meal to 75 former shelter residents like Hannah.
“Our families who have spent time in the shelter have their first real Thanksgiving dinner at home and have everything that they need,” New Orleans Women and Children’s Shelter CEO Dawn Fletcher said.
According to the shelter’s CEO Dawn Fletcher, each basket costs over $150.
“The donors actually come to us, and that’s one of the things that warms my heart as well, not having to reach out and ask for a donation,” Fletcher said.
One day, Boyland’s new family traditions will become old family traditions.
As the turkey goes into the oven, Boyland will be thinking of her family at the Women and Children’s Shelter.
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