This year in Ventura, families experiencing financial difficulties, could pick up a Thanksgiving dinner basket at the West Park Community Center. The Baskets, Created and distributed by Teen Voice were filled with turkey, pie, juice, stuffing, and mashed potatoes: the basic essentials of a Thanksgiving meal.

Teen Voice, is a district-wide leadership club. Teen Voice clubs at Foothill, Buena, Ventura, and Pacific high schools gathered donations from students to help the 150 families from Title One schools, schools that have students in need of financial aid or students who meet requirements for federal support.

“This is our 12th year doing this project, Teen Voice took it over about six years ago when we started, it’s just an opportunity for the community center and for the city to give back to families that are in need,” said Mario Robinson, the Youth Program Supervisor for Ventura. “There’s a lot of families in our community that are hurting right now financially, and it’s a chance for us to give back.”

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 One woman explained that she was divorced with five children, takes care of her mom, and has no money. She stated that without the help from Teen Voice, she would not have been able to have a Thanksgiving meal.

 Another woman revealed that she had gone through surgery, but was unemployed, which really set her back financially.

 Senior Jenny Castillo, the president of Foothill’s Teen Voice club, said that her family had received a Thanksgiving basket when they first moved to Ventura. She explained that she was very young at the time, so she did not really understand the big impact the basket had on her families’ Thanksgiving, but her parents were very thankful.

“I could see the relief in my parents’ eyes, because they did not have to worry about trying to get food for this Thanksgiving. And it was a big relief for them, not having to worry about that,” Castillo said.

Families’ who received baskets were not the only ones who befitted from the program. Students from the Teen Voice club, Mario Robinson and volunteers all felt that they were making a difference within the community.

“I’m thankful and we’re blessed to have all the things we have and we just want to make sure that we can give back to the people in our community,” Robinson said.

“We honestly give up days to help the community, we don’t really care about the hours,” Castillo said.

 Robinson expressed how everyone felt, knowing that they had helped so many families have a Thanksgiving meal.

“It just makes us feel good that we did it and all the Teen Voice students feel good that they’re helping the community and families’ kids out so it’s just a good feeling overall,” he said.