A Thanksgiving Surprise
Early in November, our case manager Terri Byrd was shopping at Trader Joe’s in Fort Worth when she felt the Lord lead her to talk to the manager. Terri explained the mission of Furnishing Families of Texas and asked if there was a way to partner together for Thanksgiving. Wanda (the manager) said to come by on Wednesday the 22nd and Trader Joe’s would donate seven turkeys. This would turn out to be QUITE an understatement.
Terri contacted seven of our closest families to find out how we could help. She also assessed their need for coats since we recently received a generous coat donation from Dr. Becky Tibbits at Max Living network (See Story Above). On Wednesday afternoon, Lance Jr and Terri packed Annabelle’s van with aluminum cooking pans, bags of thanksgiving sides, 3 coolers, freezer packs, and coats, then set off to Fort Worth.
The Trader Joe’s staff overwhelmed us with their generosity. Not only did they donate TWENTY TURKEYS, but when they discovered our plans and the amount of time for the deliveries, they also donated Trader Joe’s travel coolers AND packed them (3 to a cooler) for us. This kept the turkeys fresh and cold, because they were refrigerated—not frozen. We stuffed our own freezer packs into the bags and hit the road!
The families were abundantly blessed with the holiday food and the coats. Larger families had the option of more than one turkey! At the Regency Oaks drop off point, Tylynn Richards met us to collect turkeys for distribution to families who live near her. (She also cooked an additional turkey for the homeless in her area and shared with them. Amazing!)
Thank you God, Trader Joe’s Fort Worth, and our amazing team for helping make this Thanksgiving Surprise happen!