If you are like me, you are probably still stuffed from eating too much Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. That is, unless you’ve been fighting crowds since 4 a.m. this morning for Black Friday, then you might have worked a bit off.
Some celebrities decided to give back to the community this week to celebrate the holidays. Kirk Douglas and his wife Anne were among the celebrities at the 75th anniversary Thanksgiving dinner for the Los Angeles Mission on Wednesday. Each year, the Los Angeles Mission offers a hot Thanksgiving dinner to those who are homeless or hungry. Chef Roy Choi brought his Kogi BBQ food truck to the event. He said, “The best that I could do was add some Kogi flavor up into there, so we made a Thai chili cranberry sauce, we added some roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and then we did a lemon-herb olive oil for the vegetables.” Sounds delicious to me!
Also helping serve dinner at the event was Chef David Thomas, actress Jennifer Love Hewitt, reality star Kim Kardashian, plus over 500 more volunteers. The crew served up over 3,000 pounds of turkey, 80 gallons of gravy, 800 pounds of green beans, and two cases of lettuce with preparations starting at 4:30 a.m. Serving began at 11 a.m. and lasted through 3 p.m. While there, the homeless also received foot care provided by the Los Angeles Christian Health Centers.
In Atlanta, rapper T.I. wasn’t cooking, but he did hand out 300 turkeys to the needy. This took place at the Carrie Steele-Pits Home, an agency that provides care for neglected and abused children. Rumor is that T.I. chose a child charity because he himself experienced a rough childhood growing up. He said, “It’s an honor and a pleasure to be able to be there and serve those who need me most in the community.”
Finally, 134 kids from the Mercy Home for Boys & Girls had a great Thanksgiving dinner served up by celebrities such as the Chicago Bears (Greg Olsen, Matt Forte, Israel Idonije, DJ Moore, and Kellen Davis), “Apprentice” Bill Rancic, WNBA star Margold Clark, and motivational speaker Christopher Gardner.
The kids, from age 11 to 21, chowed down on turkey, butternut squash soup, mashed potatoes, and stuffing.