Wheeler County Teen Distributes 150 Meal Packages for Thanksgiving Food Drive

Jack Nelson, 14, began distributing the majority of the 150 meal packages prepared from his food drive on Nov. 20 in the Wheeler County School Bus Depot in Alamo.

Nelson began planning the food drive approximately one month prior, following news of the federal government shutdown on Oct. 1 due to a funding bill disagreement. The shutdown would lead to the suspension of food relief programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) due to lack of funds.

Nelson, together with his mother Brandi Walker, disregarded the idea of a traditional canned food drive in favor of meal packages, where the ingredients and recipes for multiple dishes would be provided in one pan.

“I talked to my mom about it and we didn’t want to do, like, a regular canned food drive, because there’s a lot of issues  in that, so that’s when we came up with the idea of putting it in the bags, and putting it in pans and giving it to people,” said Nelson.

The pair began soliciting donations and set up an Amazon wishlist, initially planning to only create 50 meal packages. Walker also reached out to Matthew Bounds of Your Barefoot Neighbor, a cooking influencer with a focus on food distribution, to help provide the recipes. 

Bounds’ involvement also widened the reach of the project, as Nelson said they received donations from across the country. Walker described returning home and being unable to enter her garage due to the amount of boxes delivered and set in front of their garage door.

“I was actually on a hunting trip, and my mom sent a picture of a bunch of boxes outside, and she said, ‘I just did the math, and you’re close to, like, 150,’ and it’s just insane doing 100 more than we originally wanted to,” said Nelson.

The packages were designed to feed families for four to five people, with either a chicken and dressing casserole or creamy chicken and dumplings, a three ingredient cake and a bottle of V8 Splash. They also included applesauce, in case families had young children.

Nelson stated the packages were for “anybody who’s in a poor financial situation.”

“I don’t care who you are; if you need the food, you need it, and the Lord doesn’t discriminate, and so I don’t neither,” said Nelson.

With the assistance of Wheeler County Elementary School Counselor Jana Nobles and Wheeler County students River Thornton and Kamarion Pound, Nelson and Walker distributed 90 of the packages from the Wheeler County bus depot. 

The other 60 were taken to the Wheeler County Sheriff’s Department for distribution on Nov. 21. Leftover food which could not fit into a package was donated to a local food pantry.