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Red Deer mom donates Thanksgiving supplies to families to teach kindness to her children

Ten families in Central Alberta were able to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner this year thanks to a Red Deer mom.
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Red Deer mom, Brittany Hunter, along with her two boys, Hayden, three, and Hudson, five, donated Thanksgiving dinner supplies to families in Central Alberta. Photo contributed

Ten families in Central Alberta were able to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner this year thanks to a Red Deer mom.

Brittany Hunter wanted to donate Thanksgiving dinner supplies to low income families so she reached out to Central Albertans on a local Facebook group Friday.

“My boys & I have decided to do another year of our turkey dinner donations. This year we have two full dinners (I really wish we had more). If you know a family or two who could use some extra help… drop me a message,” her post reads.

Other Central Alberta families joined in, once they saw Hunter’s post, and the two planned dinners became 10. Three of those were donated by Hunter.

“We supplied them with turkey, and everything else, so they could cook and enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner,” said Hunter.

Ingredients were donated to two families in Rocky Mountain House and eight in Red Deer.

The parent wanted to teach her children – Hayden, three, and Hudson, five – the value of giving back to the community.

Both her children shopped with her for the dinner ingredients.

“My five-year-old was a little confused at first, so we had a talk with him to let him know that not everybody has enough money, and sometimes people struggle,” she said.

“After that he asked me if any of the families had kids so that he could donate some of his toys,” said the mom. “He was pumped about it.”

There is a need in the community because not all Central Alberta families can afford Thanksgiving dinners on a day that’s so special, said Hunter Sunday.

“I do think there are more people that needed help but didn’t want to ask for it,” she said. “One lady was too embarrassed to comment (on my post) so she privately messaged me,” she explained.

“I gave another lady a turkey dinner (supplies) – she knew a single mom who didn’t want to ask for it – so she picked it up and surprised her with it.”

The Red Deer resident said she started the tradition last year together with her friend, Courtney Johnston from Lacombe, after the two saw someone was asking for help with their Thanksgiving dinner on one of the local Facebook pages. The duo took to Facebook to see if there were others. They received close to 100 Facebook messages from low income families who needed help. Together, the two friends donated Thanksgiving supplies to six families.

“We actually felt worst about it after because I didn’t realize there were that many people who (needed help),” she said.

This year, Johnston donated three meals with help from a business, Hunter said.

“We got way more messages last year than we did this year,” she said referring to the 15 messages Hunter received this year.



mamta.lulla@reddeeradvocate.com

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