DELIVERING FREE THANKSGIVING MEALS SHOWS ‘ WHAT HARDSHIP LOOKS LIKE’
Rain fell on Maria Cwiklik as she waited outside her Austin apartment Wednesday afternoon for two women to bring her something her family was in need of — a warm meal.
“Everybody is struggling, and this is a lot of help for me,” Cwiklik said. “I can’t buy any food right now so this is a lot of help, you know; this is what hardship looks like.”
Cwiklik was waiting for her old friends Candace Musick and Michelle Thomas, who were delivering to her six Thanksgiving meals just before the holiday — already cooked and individually packaged.
Both Musick and Thomas work with The Night Ministry, an organization that provides housing for young people. On Wednesday, they were delivering almost 40 meals donated by Smoke Daddy Wrigleyville to those who used to be residents in their shelter, which is how Cwiklik knows the two.
Making sure people have a warm meal in the days leading up to Thanksgiving has always been a tough task, but a lingering pandemic that has triggered economic hardships has made that work even more difficult.
The line for food stretched around the block at the Barreto Boys and Girls Club, 1214 N. Washtenaw Ave., Wednesday afternoon. The giveaway was supposed to run from 1 to 5 p. m., but all the meals were gone within two hours.
“We do this annually, and we tend to serve about 400 people in the community, but this year with COVID- 19, everything has changed,” said Jeremy Murphy, senior director of the club. “We actually gave out 552 meals in less than two hours; we broke our record. Last year we only did 432.”
Murphy said meals were provided and packaged by the West Town Bikes and Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School.
“It speaks to the need of the families because right now they are struggling to find food due to the high unemployment rates,” Murphy said. “Prior to COVID- 19 you still had those challenges, but this has shown me those challenges have heightened.”