CHANDLER, AZ — For hundreds of Chandler families, a Thanksgiving meal starts at the Chandler CARE Center.
As the center prepares to help families in need, students are pitching in to get everything ready. For more than 15 years, the Chandler CARE Center has been distributing meals through its Thanksgiving Family Assistance Day.
This year, the center is packing food boxes for 384 families.
"We know the holiday season is extra stressful, for families in our community, and the ability to provide that food for them that they can take home, they can prepare with their family, they can sit around and have a meal together, they can invite in their family and their neighbors and their friends, I think it is just such a heartwarming thing to be able to do," Chandler CARE Center Director Katie Kahle said.
On Friday, students from Chandler High and ACP Middle School sorted the donations.
"Right now we are packing food, canned food, making sure expiration dates are good, getting ready for the Thanksgiving season," one student said.
Payton Ackert is a senior in the IB program at Chandler High. The annual IB Day of Service gives students like him the opportunity to give back.
"Being able to help out has been great and it just means a lot to me to be able to feed these people and let them have the Thanksgiving and the Christmas that I do," Ackert said.
Kahle said it's amazing to see the students come out.
"I think it makes an impact to them to be able to see it going right back to their community to their neighbors potentially," Kahle said.
The center is still short on a few things: rice and beans, gravy, cake mix and frosting. It's taking donations through the end of next week.
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