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Indy Woman Has Fed Thousands On Thanksgiving For Almost 40 Years

Cans of food for a Thanksgiving Day meal sit in a storage room at Janet Easley's home.
Cans of food for a Thanksgiving Day meal sit in a storage room at Janet Easley's home.

Janet Easley has been serving Thanksgiving dinner to thousands of needy people in central Indiana every holiday for the last 38 years.

She says everyone is welcome to the Turner Family Thanksgiving Meal, which will be held at three locations across Indianapolis this year.

“It’s everybody, parents, single parents going through a hard time, children,” Easley says.

This year will be no different, as she makes the final preparations for the meal, which consists of traditional Thanksgiving fare.

"Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes either or mashed potatoes corn and green beans,” she says.

And Easley doesn't forget the treats: sweet potato pie will be served for dessert. 

Easley doesn’t do it alone; she has help from 200 volunteers, plus inmates from the Indiana Women’s Prison who cook the turkeys.

Easley fed nearly ten thousand people last year, and she expects close to the same number this year.

“I feel content, when I know that I did something to make someone happy,” Easley says.

Dinner will be served from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday at the Watkins Family Center, Harpers Bar & Grill and Sunrise Missionary Baptist Church.

For more information, call (317) 327-7175.

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Adam Pinsker is a reporter and multi-media journalist with WTIU and WFIU news. He was previously a reporter at WFTX in Cape Coral, Florida and KTUU in Anchorage, Alaska. In his spare time Adam likes working out, watching football, basketball and baseball and exploring Indiana's outdoors.