Woman delivers meals to neighbors alone on Thanksgiving
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Phoenix, AR (KTVK) — With so many people alone this Thanksgiving, a north Phoenix woman didn’t want anyone to go hungry.
“My mom usually cooks every year for lots of people but this year things are different and we’re just the three of us so we thought we’d help others,” said Dana Robling-Harris. “We thought well, we’re going to have all this wonderful food and we always have a lot of leftovers and none of us really want to eat them for the next 3 days and we thought, I bet there are a lot of people really suffering this season.”
Robling-Harris posted on her NextDoor app asking if anyone was alone for the holiday and needed a meal. She says the response was overwhelming. “I just thought, oh gosh, this is resonating. People are feeling this. And I thought that was wonderful,” Robling-Harris said.
She, her mom, and her husband individually packed each dish and put them in bags for the five people spending the holiday alone and then delivered them while wearing masks. “There are people who care. There are people who still think family and closeness is important during a holiday like this. I just hope they know that there are people out there who care,” she said.
Robling-Harris said their Thanksgiving was small this year because extended family couldn’t come visit. Plus, her two brothers passed away in recent years, and her father died last December. “We are just getting smaller and smaller. It’s me and my mom and my husband,” Robling-Harris explained. “With my mom being older, we just thought we’d hunker down and stay safe.”
Each person she delivered a meal to was alone on Thanksgiving for one reason or another. One woman just had foot surgery and couldn’t cook like she normally would. Another lived with only a tenant and neither had family around. One woman’s family was quarantining with Coronavirus, leaving her alone. And a woman named April found herself alone because her daughter lives in San Diego and couldn’t travel.
“She said, ‘I’m sorry mom.’ It was just like a few days before Thanksgiving and then I saw Dana’s email,” said April. “I had been invited to a friend’s house but there were too many people for my comfort level. I’m in my mid-60s.”
April said she loves cooking and baking on Thanksgiving, but had no motivation this year. She saw Dana’s note in NextDoor as a blessing.
“As I wrote Dana on the card, today’s the day to count your blessings and I’m counting you and your family as one,” April said.
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