At the crack of dawn Saturday morning, hundreds of volunteers packed into the D.C. Armory to assemble Thanksgiving meals for thousands of families in need. This is the 30th year that the organization tries to make the holiday a little better for folks in our area.
Project GiveBack’s 30th Annual Thanksgiving Food Distribution brought around 600 volunteers to the Armory. They are packing meal boxes with chicken, onions, potatoes, stuffing and other Thanksgiving staples for around 5,000 families.
“Just to look back and see the progress that we had, going from six families to now 5,000 families, that’s amazing,” said Ransom Miller III. “And the most beautiful thing about the 30 years is that the young people that were with us are adults now, and they’re fully engaged. They understand the responsibility that they have to give back to our community.”
Miller said the idea came to him while he and friends were having lunch together at work.
“Just recognizing how blessed we were, and we said we should do something for some people who are not in such a good situation. And we got together, we passed the hat around, and we raised some money, and we bought food baskets for six families. I can’t say in retrospect, that I had this big vision,” Miller told WTOP.
For the past several years, Project GiveBack has partnered with The UPS Foundation.
“The thing that UPS loves about Project GiveBack is that it’s one of the major events that brings everybody together in a world where people are divided by a lot of different things, there are few things that bring everybody from all walks of life together to forget about their differences and really work to support their neighbors,” said Nikki Clifton, president of Social Impact and The UPS Foundation.
Many of the meals were delivered by UPS trucks and drivers.
This year, Project GiveBack is not only working in the D.C. area, but also in Miller’s hometown of Oklahoma City as well as Indianapolis.
“And they’re doing 60 families this year and partnering with Omega Psi Phi Fraternity chapter in Indianapolis to try to get off the ground,” Miller said about the expansion.
To learn more about Project GiveBack or to donate to the nonprofit visit their website.
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