JCCA cooks up Thanksgiving Day meals in Pleasantville
The nonprofit is dedicated to providing quality child welfare and mental health services.
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Residents and staff at JCCA Westchester cooked up a special Thanksgiving meal on Wednesday night.
Staff said they would share the meal with the rest of the campus and some of their families on Thursday.
"Today we're doing turkey, we're doing cornbread," Tayler Rivera, a teenager who lives at the residential treatment center, said.
The annual tradition was created by their resident supervisor, Donyal Campfield, back in 2009.
"We wanted to give the kids a sense of home for the ones who had to stay back," Campfield said.
Many of the kids that News 12 spoke with said the meal prep actually helps them cope with their struggles.
"It's like a really calming sensation...it tells me that I can add love and my affection into the food," Rivera said.
She added that her involvement was also a way for her to give back to her community at the cottages.
"It shows them that I actually care," Rivera said. "I'm able to sit here and show them that 'Oh I'm not a bad person. I'm actually very fun and I like to help out."
Staff members at the treatment center predicted that the meal would feed around 100 people on Thanksgiving.
