VIDEO: Community Comes Together for Holiday Meal

NEW ALBANY, Miss. (WCBI)- The line was very long, stretching virtually the entire length of the New Albany Middle School Cafeteria. And while some people chose to take a carry out box home, others stayed and ate together.

There was live Christmas music as well as fun and games for the kids. The New Albany Community Meal started five years ago, growing out of a food drive held in 2011 for the Good Samaritan Center.

“We noticed that they were seeing greater numbers of families that needed meals. And so we knew that nobody served a hot Christmas meal during the Christmas holidays so just several teachers and community people got together and decided to start serving a hot meal for our community,” says event organizer Mary Margrett.

And one of the largest employers in the New Albany area Walmart, provided the Turkeys and Hams and even cooked and prepared them for the meal.

“We brought in a lot of volunteers from our distribution center and with a lot of the local help we were able to prepare through the night and into the morning for today’s event. It’s a very big deal for us. We always want to give back to the community. You should never not give back to the community everything that you are and everything that you do you should make the community a part of that,” says Mitch Lankin with Walmart.

And one of the volunteers was Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, who says this event represents the true spirit of Christmas.

“Community, people getting together, friends helping friends. And actually this is a testimony to Mississippi because when they look at the charitable giving each year Mississippi ranks first or second each year for decades and decades so this is part of what we’re proud of. And here at the season of giving and the season of sharing and charity this is the place to be,”  says Senator Wicker.

“We have people that maybe just don’t have a lot of family or they don’t go anywhere for the holidays. they can just come out and we can fellowship together and socialize and just have a hot meal together.”
And hot meals weren’t the only thing they were giving away. We have a lot of donations of scarves and gloves and coats. So we’re giving out warm clothing items to people that need those as well. So we’re really made it into a community festivity,” says Margrett.

Many of the volunteers from Walmart started last night with preparation and stayed for the cleanup.