TRURO, N.S. – Mandi Northrup couldn’t afford to buy groceries for Thanksgiving dinner this year, and with no turkeys at the food banks she thought she would have to do without.
Then, she found out about The Jacob Project.
“A Thanksgiving dinner, most people know costs 50 plus dollars. That’s a whole week of food for me if not more,” said Northrup. “It was emotional and I didn’t really expect half of what I got.”
Launched by Jacob Boudreau, 9, the project promotes random acts of kindness. Boudreau got the idea after watching the movie the Pursuit of Happiness with his family.
Along with his family, Jacob started a social media campaign encouraging others to donate the ingredients for a Thanksgiving dinner. Since posting a video online, Jacob’s dad says the response has been overwhelming.
“More and more people started contacting us and rather than trying to be the people who facilitated all of it we said, ‘well we just want you to go out and do some acts of kindness yourself, so take this as inspiration, find out some things that you can do,'” said Paul Boudreau.
Through the donations, 22 families were given all the ingredients needed for a traditional Thanksgiving feast. Northrup says it’s a dinner she’ll never forget.
“Having no living family, only my son, that means that I can put a dinner on the table for him and have that family feeling. Whether it’s just the two of us and a friend or not, it’s still family, love, and exactly what I’m thankful for.”
Jacob says he and his family are already brainstorming other initiatives for Halloween and Christmas.
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