Published on January 12th, 2021 | by Diogo Costa

How F2F helped more than 1,000 families last Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a time to express one’s gratitude for all the good things that happened throughout the year. Originally, the date was celebrated after the harvest season, precisely to thank for the abundance of agricultural production.

For this reason, to this day, families come together in celebration on Thanksgiving and it is, along with Christmas, one of the most important holidays in the United States and Canada. While not everyone is fortunate enough to have plenty of food to celebrate this festive day with, this last Thanksgiving was a bit different for over 1,000 families in need.

The Fund II Foundation (F2F) has recently announced that, in partnership with several local partner organisations from six cities, it has gifted over a thousand families with a $150 gift card for local supermarkets, so that they could at least have an abundant and happy meal in 2020’s Thanksgiving.

F2F handed these gift cards via several partner organisations that include Austin Urban Tech Movement, Cleo Parker Dance Company, Eagle Academy Foundation, GOODProjects, Little Herds, Rosie’s Place, Tech Access Foundation and more. These organisations work locally in different aspects, such as education, skills or overall empowerment of those local communities.

Instead of providing them with a set of goods, this initiative allowed families to prepare all the Thanksgiving delicacies they enjoy the most – something that is particularly important, along with keeping the spirit of the holiday, in these times of a pandemic crisis.

Darius Baxter, co-founder of GOODProjects, explains how this aid is important for these communities:

“The Fund II Foundation’s support of our season of giving initiative makes a huge difference in the community we serve. With an average annual household income of only $14,500 in our GOODZone of families, food insecurity is a problem we face on a daily basis, and robs families of moments, such as holidays, to create lasting memories they will carry with them throughout their lives. (…) Our goal is to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty and improve the quality of life of the families we serve. Initiatives such as this help to do that.”

In addition to the aforementioned $150 gift cards, F2F has also provided different gift cards of $100 to 51 families of youth participants of F2F’s annual Restoration Retreat, an empowerment program for underserved youth hosted annually in the summer.

Tags: f2f, solidarity, thanksgiving