JWU Volunteers: Making Thanksgiving Brighter for South Florida Families

Students from the College of Culinary Arts at Johnson & Wales University’s North Miami Campus will do their part to help South Florida families in need by preparing turkeys for Miami Rescue Mission’s annual Thanksgiving banquet dinner.

Prep Support for the Thanksgiving Day Banquet
On Nov. 13, JWU students began the process of preparing 200 turkeys that will be served on Thanksgiving Day to more than 3,000 homeless and hungry men, women and children.

“We take great pride in giving back to the community and continually encourage our students to engage in community service as part of their learning and enrichment,” said Ismare Monreal, JWU North Miami dean of students. “Hunger and homelessness are among the initiatives we support at Johnson & Wales University, and we are we are proud to partner with Miami Rescue Mission for this effort.”

Each year, Miami Rescue Mission provides meals for the homeless on Thanksgiving Day. With limited kitchen space and chefs to prepare the meals, the organization typically begins preparation at least one month in advance to assure all food is ready on Thanksgiving Day. With support from JWU, the organization was able to minimize the amount of time for preparation, enabling more opportunity to assist families in need.

Volunteer Effort Includes Campuswide Food Drive
“It is always an enormous task each year to cook such an enormous amount of turkeys to get ready for The Great Thanksgiving Day Banquet Street Outreach,” said Rev. Ronald Brummitt, president of Miami Rescue Mission. “We normally start cooking a month before the outreach. Having the students of JWU help us with cooking this amount of turkeys is a tremendous blessing and helps us concentrate our resources in serving our homeless every day before and after Thanksgiving. We are deeply grateful to the university and to the students for helping us this year.”

JWU’s support of Miami Rescue Mission also includes a campus-wide food drive for the organization’s “Pack the Pantry” initiative. Faculty, staff and students from all colleges are encouraged to donate non-perishable items, which will be distributed to Miami Rescue Mission’s sites in Miami, Hollywood and Pompano Beach.

These initiatives are in alignment with JWU’s culture of community service. JWU was selected for the 2014 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service to America’s communities. The North Miami campus was also honored in the “General Service” and “Education Community Service” categories.