LYNN — Thanks to the hard work of multiple organizations, as well Lynn resident Schuyler Hogan, many Lynn families will have a meal to eat on Thanksgiving.
Saturday, these groups braved the cold as they handed out dinner supplies at different spots throughout the city to more than a thousand local families in need.
Mayor Thomas McGee and State Representative Donald Wong showed up to help as United Way handed out Thanksgiving kits to the needy Lynn families during the organization’s 20th Thanksgiving Project.
The line wrapped around the giveaway’s 10 Church St. location as volunteers rushed to keep the crowd moving.
“This is a wonderful day of people coming together in our community and making a happy Thanksgiving a reality for a lot of families,” McGee said.
Representative Wong said he was inspired by the ripple effect of events like this.
“(They’re) not just feeding a thousand people, because each family has more people. They’re affecting so many lives today that I had to be down here to help,” he said.
Lynn is just one of several communities the United Way is serving across the region this holiday season. However, Rosie Martel-Foley, assistant vice president of Stewardship for United Way, says she finds Lynn unique because local volunteers make the added effort of calling each family that pre-registered for meals ahead of time to ensure they’ll be able to make it to the 9 a.m. to noon pick-up.
If a family is unable to collect its meal kit, LHAND (Lynn Housing Authority and Neighborhood Development) will make sure it’s delivered to them.
“LHAND does an incredible job with their clients and making sure they do outreach to the community,” Martel-Foley said. “We have a really high turnout rate for the folks who have signed up for meals.”
Some of the efforts to feed the city have been more home-grown. 23-year-old New England Law Boston student and Lynn native Schuyler Hogan made the decision two months ago he wanted to organize a turkey giveaway event, which he decided to call Everybody Eats, as a way to give back to the city that he says has already given him so much.
He asked more than a dozen local businesses if they would be willing to help him reach his goal of giving away a hundred turkeys at the Lynn Common gazebo the Saturday before Thanksgiving. The response was so overwhelmingly positive, he said, that not only was he able to buy the turkeys, but several side dishes as well.
He says it’s these business owners, many of whom he grew up with, that inspired him.
“All these people started their own businesses straight out of Lynn,” Hogan said. “When I say the city of Lynn inspired me, it’s because of people like this. They come from our city, they start their own businesses. It’s a lot to look up to.”
He added that he wanted to highlight the strong sense of community he’s witnessed in his hometown.
“When I tell people I’m from Lynn, they look at me like, ‘oh man, what’s over there?’ They see all the crime on the news and I try to tell them, ‘no, it’s a beautiful place, it’s a beautiful city,'” he said. “I just want to highlight all the people that came together to give back to our community. I want to show there’s not just violence here. There’s lots of good stuff going on in Lynn.”
“My family’s humongous and it’s not just blood. Lots of people showed up for me, but not just for me, they showed up for the city of Lynn. They showed up for the people, he said.
