By Chianti Marks
AFRO Intern
In true Thanksgiving spirit, God’s Best Family and the Baltimore Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity recently hosted annual community giveaways, offering food, support services and holiday fellowship.
God’s Best Family held its event on Nov. 22 from 1–5 p.m., distributing catered meals, free frozen turkeys, gently used clothing, fresh produce, household goods and Narcan kits, with support from the Baltimore City Health Department.
The South Baltimore-based nonprofit focuses on improving community wellbeing, especially for children. The organization operates free after-school tutoring, summer camp, monthly parent peer groups with a licensed social worker, and other family-centered programs.
“It is our time to be able to help the parents go through whatever they may be struggling with in a positive way. We do Thanksgiving events, Christmas events and a summer block party, simply a lot of stuff around bettering the family life in our community,” said LaShaun Gibson, vice president of God’s Best Family.
Founder Turell Brooks created this organization after witnessing the day-to-day struggles his community faces.
“We had seen in our community the effect of drugs and women dealing with things that no woman should ever have to deal with and just seeing that the kids were struggling. So creating God’s Best Family gave me an opportunity to give back in a way that I wished someone gave back to me and others in the community,” said Brooks.
Since 2013, the group has held an annual Thanksgiving giveaway.
“At [last year’s event] we gave away 700 turkeys. This year our goal [was] to give away 200 more turkeys, getting sponsors to donate funds so that we can buy the turkeys and have our caterer prepare enough food,” Brooks said. “A lot of fundraising and grant requests go into making that happen.”
God’s Best Family partners with several organizations to offer a resource fair, connecting residents with public services, housing support and harm reduction tools.
“Right now, we live in a time where we have a lot of people who are battling with addiction. So we have a save the life table where you can sign up to get Narcan kits and keep them in your home–just in case. Rather than waiting on the ambulance, you can get to them faster. So we encourage everyone to sign up. We have public work teams telling people about housing and other public services as well as the state attorney joining,” said Gibson.
Shantelle Smith, of One Love Life Resources, came to support God’s Best Family and aid in the disbursement of resources such as the narcan kits and harm reduction tools. She also sent many people to receive resources and have a positive experience.
“This event is important because people are being served, lives are impacted and being touched at a time where people have had a lot of loss. People have lost jobs and SNAP benefits, but there is hope because of the hope right here in the community that they live in, and there are people that care about them,” she said. “That’s what it means to me to be here today representing those that have lost so much and are in need of these resources.”
On Nov. 23, the Kappa Alpha Psi Foundation of Metropolitan Baltimore and the Baltimore Alumni Chapter of the organization hosted their annual “Thanksgiving for All” event at City View at McCulloh Homes.
Volunteers provided hot meals to about 200 individuals and families in the community, as well as wellness support and community building activities.
This year’s partners included New Day New Start Behavioral Health Center, Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. and Maryland Sen. Antonio Hayes (D- District 40), who is a member of Baltimore Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.
Hayes attended with his family and has supported the initiative for 13 years.
“This event means so much to me but even more now as I lost my grandmother a couple of months ago,” the lawmaker said. “Being here with these seasoned citizens and having the opportunity to fellowship with them, talk with them, gain some wisdom from the experiences that they’ve had…it begins to center me around the idea that the holidays are coming and that I have so much to be grateful and thankful for. There’s no better gift than giving back to other people.”
Turner Roscoe, chief operating officer of New Day New Start and longtime event organizer, was joined by members of the Baltimore Alumni Chapter, youth leaders from the Baltimore Kappa League, undergraduate brothers from Rho Upsilon and Zeta Gamma, the Silhouettes, and members of Alpha Iota in support of the initiative.
“Leaving here today, I want people to feel seen and remember we are all human beings. One of the ultimate goals is to inspire service and public interest, and that’s something we do here today ensuring that the public is seen and supported as much as we possibly can,” said Roscoe.
New Day New Start, which provides counseling, therapy, psychiatric care, substance-use programs and case management, helped sponsor the event and conducts bi-weekly outreach at McCulloh Homes.
“I hope they see how supportive we are and that we are here, that this is not a one time thing, this has been yearly now as it is our second or third year onboard. We hope the community sees our faces more and more so that they know this is long term for us and not a one time thing,” said Amanda Morales from New Day New Start.
The Baltimore Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity mentors about 100 young men and brought roughly 30-40 of them to volunteer.
“It’s good to come out to the city and just help people,” said 17-year-old Nathaniel Baines. “People who don’t have family or that relationship with their families, it’s good to have somewhere they can do that. I hope people got a sense of community from this event because I know that something we all need right now is community, fellowship and some good food.”
Another volunteer, 17-year-old Julian Prioleau, said he enjoys being part of something uplifting.
“I really like to see people come together and want to be that stepping stone that helps people come together, handing out food and giving back to the community. I just love putting a smile on people’s faces. I think this event is really good community outreach and really brings the community together. It’s just happiness out here. I hope people learned from this event that there is always a helping hand out there and always a community willing to help anybody,” said Prioleau.
Christian Hill, 16, who attends annually with his father, said giving back is personal.
“I volunteer because I enjoy helping people who don’t have enough for themselves,” he said. “My hope is that the community gets enjoyment and some good. It means a lot to me because I know growing up sometimes it’s hard getting food and not having enough, it makes me feel really good when I know that I can help other people have enough for themselves.”
Morales said one moment stood out: watching Hayes speak individually with residents.
“He wasn’t the senator today,” said Morales. “I love that he was going around speaking to everybody, very down to earth. This just felt like a very personal event; everyone brought a family. I love to see the youth that was volunteering as part of the programs. It was a beautiful thing to witness and for them to also witness what giving back to the community does.”