Lonely, poor and addicted invited to charitable Thanksgiving

Trevor Morris just wanted to help some people for Thanksgiving. On Monday, he posted to Facebook that his restaurant, the Trevioli Artisan Pasta Company, would close to the public and instead open to people who needed a good Thanksgiving.

The post, which Facebook said was viewed by more than 50,000 people, attracted around a dozen customers and 20-25 volunteers in the first hour. The event was Thursday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The Company gave away food donated by groups around the Valley. Morris estimated he could feed up to 500 with everything he had received. He said he wasn’t sure what to do with the extra food, but would probably give it to another charity or hand it out to the needy.

It was the first time Morris has tried something like this charitable Thanksgiving dinner.

He said it was just something good he wanted to try, especially after experiencing the other end of charity as a child.

“There was a time in my life when I was on the other side of the coin, when I was in line to get a free meal,” Morris said. “I was thankful to whoever did it. So I feel like if you can, you should.”

The restaurant owner said he grew up in a family with a lot of kids and little money. Welfare, food stamps and free lunches at school were what Morris said got his family by. In a Job Spotlight from March 2015, he also told the Ledger-Enquirer his upbringing included a mother addicted to drugs and his own depression.

“I remember that there was a local bakery that would find needy families like ours and they would bring stuff by all the time,” Morris said. “I always thought that was super cool as a kid.”

Natalie Blackwell, 26, said she volunteered to help the dinner as part of a joint decision with her mother. Her brother is in Atlanta and her mother is in South Carolina and they could not get together for Thanksgiving. Instead, Blackwell and her mother decided to do charity for the holiday.

“That’s the whole purpose of Thanksgiving,” Blackwell said. “What better way is there to give back?”

Morris said he asked for the lonely and anxious to visit as well because of the problems associated with the holidays.

“This is the time of the year where your suicide rate goes up,” he said. “If there’s a chance that somebody came in today who needed just one more day of being around people to save them from going over the edge or relapsing or suicide or whatever, it would be so awesome if we could be something that prevents that from happening.”

This story was originally published November 26, 2015 at 6:21 PM with the headline "Lonely, poor and addicted invited to charitable Thanksgiving."