Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Local nonprofit begins Thanksgiving donation drive to feed school children

WILMINGTON — A local nonprofit is aiming to feed area school children and their families this holiday season.

NourishNC’s 2022 Thanksgiving Dinner Donation Drive will help 1,400 children receive “Take-and-Bake” items to complete the holiday meal for their family. A $30 donation ensures turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, soup, cornbread mix, apple sauce, and fresh fruits and vegetables are packed for each child.

Items come in a foil pan with recipes for the family. There is also a volunteer packing event scheduled to take place Nov. 18, noon to 2 p.m.

“We want every child in this community to experience the joy of having a Thanksgiving dinner with their family, in the comfort of their home,” executive director Steve McCrossan said.

NourishNC fed 600 families in its 2021 event. This year’s fundraiser hopes to top last, and is making a head start in the nonprofit’s new home — a 12,000 square foot facility at 3606 Market St. Nourish now has quadruple the storage space for fresh and frozen foods and double the space for non-perishable stockpiles.

It also houses Market on Market — or “The MoM” — a small, free grocery store where food-insecure children and their families can grocery shop.

The 501c3 nonprofit oversees numerous programs to help feed school children, including a Backpack Program that sends food home over the weekends and during school breaks. The Thanksgiving dinner drive is part of the Backpack Program.

The public can donate $30 here.


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Shea Carver
Shea Carver
Shea Carver is the editor in chief at Port City Daily. A UNCW alumna, Shea worked in the print media business in Wilmington for 22 years before joining the PCD team in October 2020. She specializes in arts coverage — music, film, literature, theatre — the dining scene, and can often be tapped on where to go, what to do and who to see in Wilmington. When she isn’t hanging with her pup, Shadow Wolf, tending the garden or spinning vinyl, she’s attending concerts and live theater.

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