HPU provides Thanksgiving meals for families in need
By Devon Wilkinson
What can you buy for $20.00 these days? Two tickets to the movies on a weekday? Dinner for two at Carolina’s Diner, not including tip? How about a Thanksgiving meal for an entire family?
With the start of the holidays comes the excitement of the pretty lights and holiday parties, gift giving and gift receiving: with the distractions the holidays bring about, it is sometimes easy to forget the real reason for this season. On the plus side, we can look to those who keep alive the real meaning of the Holidays and remember.
This will be the third consecutive year the High Point University’s Professional Selling Club has sponsored a cause in which, just a $20.00 donation can provide an entire Thanksgiving meal for a family in need.
With a GoFundMe page, a Barberitos night, and selling pizza in the Greek Promenade, the HPU Professional Selling club has had their elbows deep in fundraising for the cause. “Our goal this year is to provide worthy families with a meal this Thanksgiving,” says Mike Estrella, HPU junior and the facilitator of the cause. Each meal donated will include a Turkey, Stuffing, gravy, boxed potatoes, and two cans of mixed vegetables.
“The city of High Point is a food desert. An unacceptable amount of children in this town have gone bed hungry. This is something that most HPU students simply cannot relate too,” says Professor Larry Quinn, club advisor. “But because we have students with big hearts, a lot of these children and their families will not be going to bed hungry this Thanksgiving.”
According to a recent article written for News&Record, the Greensboro-High Point metropolitan was ranked one of the hungriest areas in the nation. The article goes on to suggest the reason for the food hardship can be linked back to 2007 as a result of the recession. With the downfall of the Market, textile companies and furniture manufacturers did not have a choice but to eliminate jobs. Donations to fix the food hardship in our community are always needed but the holidays, in particular, continue to be hard on the families affected. “This is the season where family values are emphasized. This is a time where families come together and make memories,” says Estrella.
Fundraising started at the beginning of October, the club was hoping to get an early lead on their goal.In the past, 75 families were given a Thanksgiving meal in the result of the effort. This year the Professional Selling club is being ambitious with a goal to provide at least 100 dinners this fall season.
Etrella concludes, “The goal of this is to provide meals to families that who would not have a Thanksgiving meals without our efforts.”