This will be a difficult Thanksgiving for many people. That’s especially true in the communities hit hardest by hurricanes Helene and Milton. But it doesn’t require a natural disaster to devastate a family’s wherewithal to meet basic needs. With skyrocketing prices, particularly at the grocery store, many must make sacrifices that might once have seemed extreme.
And the traditional Thanksgiving dinner with its rich bounty of delicious things to eat has, for some, become an unattainable expense.
Fortunately, some Good Samaritans in this community have recognized the need and are doing something about it.
On Saturday, Nov. 23, hundreds of our friends and neighbors will gather at the link in Nocatee Town Center to assemble Thanksgiving dinner baskets and deliver them to families in parts of Jacksonville and the St. Augustine area.
In all, volunteers with the North East Florida Third Annual Basket Brigade hope to provide meals for 250 families. But to accomplish that, the effort will need help from the community.
Perhaps the greatest need is financial donations. Each basket costs $60, so the total expense would be $15,000. All of the money goes toward feeding people and nothing is used for anything else. Should an excess be raised, it will be applied to next year’s effort. And, according to one of the core volunteers, any donation is welcome, whether great or small.
To make a donation, see the group’s Go Fund Me page at https://gofund.me/74199c67.
Donations of food are not being accepted as they require storage space and may vary from the intended Thanksgiving menu.
Another need is volunteers. Last year, about 100 people turned out to assemble and deliver the baskets. This year, organizers are hoping for 150 to 200. Also, about 75 to 100 drivers will be needed.
Volunteers will gather at 8 a.m. at the link, 425 Town Plaza Ave., Ponte Vedra Beach, where they will devote about two to two-and-a-half hours to assembling the meals while a DJ plays Christmas music. Where possible, young children will do the actual placement of food in the baskets.
“It gives them a foundation for living in gratitude,” explained core volunteer Rob Swymer. “It also gives them a foundation for being a giver, not a getter in life.”
To volunteer, go to https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080F44AAA722AAF85-44699797-thanksgiving. This will help organizers with the logistics, particularly as it relates to deliveries.
The project is inspired by The Tony Robbins Foundation’s International Basket Brigade Movement, a 100% volunteer-run program that serves millions of families around the world.
Katie and Steven Drewes got involved while living in Connecticut, where they joined a small group that, at first, was delivering about 50 baskets a year. They doubled their effort annually and got up to 4,000 families served.
When the Drewes couple moved to Florida 10 years ago, they continued their efforts, and again after they moved to Nocatee seven years ago.
“We started with three (families); then we did six,” said Steven Drewes. “When we got up to 20, we were like, hey, we should probably get some other people to help us.”
In 2022, a core group was formed, and that first year, baskets were delivered to 40 local families. Last year, they increased that to 100. According to Swymer, they hope to keep doubling the effort annually.
“We want to make a massive impact on the community,” he said. “There’s so much need, we would never run out of families.”
Katie Drewes said the project has a ripple effect throughout the area.
“It starts with you; it starts with your family; it starts with your community,” she said.
Swymer credited the link and its team for providing volunteers a space to assemble the baskets.
