BRYAN, Texas — For 33 years, Gloria Kennard has been feeding the community a home-cooked meal for Thanksgiving, wanting to reach those who can’t afford a meal, or can’t join their own families for the holidays.
The 76-year-old Bryan native is no stranger to cooking for others, having cooked meals for Texas A&M students all her working life.
This week she’s preparing to do something else she’s done for many decades: feeding those in need on Thanksgiving, for free. The charitable effort started back in 1988, out of her old home on Martin Luther King Jr. Street. Over the years it's grown and grown, evolving into a massive volunteer effort hosted at a local church, feeding hundreds of people.
"The reason I do this is because God wants us to help one another," Kennard said. "And the poor will be with us always. So if you can do something for somebody without a lot of praise, just go ahead and do it.”
This year's free meal will be served from 12 - 4 p.m., on Thanksgiving day at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, located on MLK Street in Downtown Bryan.
Due to social distancing needs, the meal will be distributed in to-go boxes for pickup only.
Kennard said that she couldn’t possibly feed the nearly 800 people she does each year, without volunteers and donations of food and funding from the public.
Anyone who would like to donate food for the meal, can drop off foods such as turkey, bread, cake, green beans, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and other goods to Pleasant Grove Baptist Church.
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