Good people in Huntsville help a record number of families with Thanksgiving dinners

Nov. 22--People in Huntsville came through again when the chips were down. A Thanksgiving dinner program for Huntsville Head Start students got off to a slow start, but folks rushed to help before school children went on vacation late last week.

In two days, people donated more than 80 dinners, both big and small, to needy families this Thanksgiving. A record 117 families will now have a scrumptious meal thanks to the good folks in the Huntsville community, the hard workers in the Brookshire Brothers bakery/deli and organizers at Huntsville'sHead Start program.

"The response and support from the community was the most we have ever had for our center. It is just hard to put into words, without having tears at the same time," said Virginia Lou Danford, social service coordinator for Huntsville Head Start, a licensed child-care program for toddlers and prekindergarten students. "I would have never thought that we would have such a huge community response and support. It is just so awesome."

On Tuesday afternoon, families filed into the Brookshire Brothers grocery store to pick up the meals they'll heat up and serve later this week.

"As I stood in Brookshire Brothers this afternoon, watching the families coming in to pick up their meals, everyone walked away happy," Danford said. "I owe the community such a huge thank you. I do not know how I will be able to thank everyone who supported our families."

Patsy Hohensee got goosebumps when she started talking about people flooding into the store late last week. Three days before the deadline, only 36 meals had been donated. When word got out that more help was needed, people responded in a big way.

"We were overwhelmed with joy," Hohensee said Tuesday. "One lady came in and said she just missed us last year. She wasn't going to miss us again, then she donated enough money for 10 meals. Another lady came in and said she had been very fortunate in her life. She said, 'I'll do 12 meals.'

"We only had 36 meals sponsored early last week. Oh, my goodness, I thought we can't feed all of our kids. Then boom, here the people came. They took care of what we needed and more. It was wonderful."

Derrick Bailey said he's grateful to the folks who donated meals. Bailey recently moved his young family from Trinity to Huntsville. They're going to have a Thanksgiving turkey on Thursday thanks to the kind folks in Huntsville.

"This is helping us out a whole lot," Bailey said Tuesday afternoon while picking up his box of turkey with all the fixings.

Erika Romero and her 3-year-old daughter, Karmen, were happy to be heading home with an easy-to-make turkey dinner. So were Mary Sanchez and Joann Fails, who are feeding their small family of four on Thanksgiving Day.

"We did this last year and it was a very good meal," Fails said. "The best part was the turkey, of course."

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