Hope For Goldsboro: Outreach group gives 500 free Thanksgiving meals inspired by difficult holiday season

Community outreach group Hope For Goldsboro provided 500 free Thanksgiving meals today in its second annual dinner.

The tradition began last year when a difficult holiday season moved one Goldsboro resident to bring the community together.

Dillard Alumni Hall in downtown Goldsboro opened its doors to anyone today, letting them grab a plate, pick their fixings, and sit down for Thanksgiving dinner – free of charge.

“Today we’re having our annual ‘Hopesgiving’ event,” Hope For Goldsboro founder Ja’Shawn Faire said. “Last year we had one, this year is the second one.”

In November 2020, Faire saw that instead of celebrating, many Goldsboro families were struggling.

“Losing jobs, people doing the unemployment benefits, people losing family members, it was a lot,” Faire said. “The pandemic really had a hard hit, especially on this city.”

He held a carwash to raise money and on Thanksgiving Day, the group served 100 meals to anyone in need.

This year, Faire wanted to go even bigger – he decided they’d give away 500 meals for Thanksgiving 2021, and he tried to make it happen on his own.

“It started out with me actually coming out of my pocket for things,” Faire said. “I started out buying turkeys with my credit cards, and maxing those out.”

It had been a good year for Ja’shawn: after months of work, he’d graduated from the academy, becoming a Goldsboro police officer.

But even with his new career, trying to pay for the meal was putting him in a financial hole until word spread about the challenge he was taking on for Goldsboro.

“And then all of a sudden, people started hearing about our vision and hearing about what we’re doing and hearing about the people we’re serving,” Faire said. “And all of a sudden they just started sending checks.”

Faire told WRAL News that Hope For Goldsboro raised enough money for 40 turkeys and volunteers brought even more food with them.

The meal was a success – but more meaningful were the moments when he saw firsthand what it meant to those at the table.

“You have people that sit down and might say like, ‘Hey, without this I don’t know what I would’ve had to eat today,’” Faire said. “Or even might have people say, ‘Hey, I haven’t had a good meal like this in years.’”

“I wanted to bring that to Goldsboro and I wanted to make that reality,” he continued.

Faire told WRAL News his goal was to keep growing the meal every year, and hopefully spread to more locations in 2022.