Friends looking to help federal workers end up feeding more than 540 people for Thanksgiving
A pair of friends in Virginia worked together to keep food on the table for those in need this Thanksgiving.
Sandra Grimes and Ginger Walker worked hand in hand to feed 135 families and more than 540 people during a Thanksgiving meal drive on Saturday, according to the longtime friends.
Grimes and Walker initially launched "Operation Thanksgiving," a plan to feed federal workers who may have been affected by the government shutdown, in early November, amid the federal work stoppage.
"We both have federal employees in our family, and we've gone through a shutdown before, six years ago, both personally and professionally," Walker told ABC News, adding that she and Grimes have worked together for 18 years, with Walker a real estate agent and Grimes a lender in Northern Virginia, an area heavily populated with federal workers.
The recent federal government shutdown was the longest in U.S. history, officially lasting 43 days. During that time, thousands of furloughed federal employees went without paychecks and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits were frozen for millions of Americans.
"We've lived without paychecks as well, and so that's initially how it started," Walker said. "We wanted to be able to help federal employees, military members that were not going to be receiving a paycheck."
With federal workers and military members as their focus, Walker and Grimes began raising money to provide them with Thanksgiving meals.
When the shutdown ended on Nov. 12, and federal employees began receiving back pay, Walker and Grimes said they decided to open their "Operation Thanksgiving" mission to anyone who needed help.
"We were getting a lot of feedback from people that were saying these words: 'Somebody else needs it more,'" Grimes said. "So we said, 'Let's open it up.'"
After more more than two weeks of gathering monetary and food donations from local businesses and community members, Grimes and Walker were joined by around 10 volunteers on Saturday morning in distributing Thanksgiving meals that included turkeys, potatoes, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, cranberries and rolls.
The friends said people from all across Northern Virginia came to pick up meals over the weekend, including nurses, employees with the sheriff's department, federal workers, government contractors, military members and more.
In total, the group gave out 135 turkeys, 675 pounds of potatoes, more than 1,500 rolls, over 240 pounds of corn, and over 100 pounds of stuffing, according to Grimes and Walker.
The friends said they viewed the project as a way of saying "thank you."
"It was a thank-you for for being there, for supporting the community, supporting the country," Walker said.
Grimes added that she hopes their work inspires others to help their own communities.
"If each person just tries to make a positive difference in someone's life, imagine where we could be," she said.
