On Wednesday, Nov. 19, students, faculty and staff filled the Atrium for the Dish Out Kindness Thanksgiving Drive. They made thousands of sandwiches for local soup kitchens and non-profits to make their Thanksgiving special.
Dish Out Kindness Club Co-Presidents Luiza Padoveze Goncalves ‘27, Sydney Wyder ‘27, Secretary Max Taylor ‘27, Social Media Manager Naisha Cheruku ‘27, Treasurer Matthew Toledo ‘27, and Sponsor Gina Pelaez led and helped organize the club’s event in collaboration with the Caesar Luis Foundation.
Alonzo Mourning, former Miami Heat NBA player and founder of the 23-year-old Overtown Youth Center, spoke on behalf of the event. He brought it to the school last year, making this the second year of the gathering, and he hopes for it to continue for as many years as possible.
“I think it’s great to see the kids involved in giving back and to help feed 400 families, and the community the Overtown Youth Center serves will benefit from these meals,” Mourning said.
The Overtown Youth Center also provides in-school and after-school programs for kids alongside a charter school, providing holistic health and wellness services for thousands of families.
At the drive, students worked hard with the Raider administration to create boxes of Thanksgiving food drive supplies, amounting to 400 meals for people in Overtown. The food supplies included corn, beans, cornbread, along with other classic Thanksgiving foods to create the meals. Students can also participate in delivering the items on Tuesday, Nov. 25 to families in need.
“We take for granted that we [our community] can have delicious meals with our families, but not everyone is in that position. So it’s just nice to remind our very blessed community how important it is to also give back,” Pelaez said.
The Dish Out Kindness Club was known as the Smiling Tummies Club until three years ago. Since Padoveze Goncalves and Wyder asked Pelaez to sponsor it, they’ve taken it in a whole new direction, transforming it into the strong source of food and hope it is today.
“It was kind of like we said, ‘let’s get more involved with the community, let’s require club members to do community service, make sandwiches for the homeless and help out in the community,’”Pelaez said.
To the students who run the club, it means a lot to see the positive impact the Thanksgiving Drive has on the community around them, especially those less fortunate.
“I think it [what we do] is unbelievably special, and I’m very privileged to be secretary of such an amazing club that can give back to the community in such a significant way. Taking the Thanksgiving food drive, for example, I get to work with such an amazing group of people, including both the board and our club members,” Taylor said.
The Club’s leaders and members helped guide each table with packing ingredients, helping make the process more efficient.
“[It was heartening] seeing the whole community come together and try to help others out of purely the goodness of their hearts and because it means something to them, their morals and their feelings. So, having the Thanksgiving event at school and seeing how many people attended was very moving,” Padoveze Goncalves said.
Through Dish Out Kindness’s two annual events, their club fulfills their purpose: to help everyone in Miami have food on their plate whenever they need it.
The joy brought to and by the Dish Out Kindness Club’s Thanksgiving Drive through this event was important and wholesome, making this Thanksgiving special for the Upper School.
