For AnnaRose Qualls, this year”s Share Thanksgiving dinner held a special significance.
Qualls, a University of Idaho freshman, started the free Thanksgiving dinner in 2013 and has gone on to feed hundreds of families.
But this year, Qualls said the dinner was in honor of her late sister Kalkidian, who died in a car accident last December, only a month after the Share Thanksgiving event.
“She loved being part of Share Thanksgiving and she would tell me about how when I would grew up and move away she wanted to take it over and put it on,” Qualls said.
Qualls said her family adopted Kalkidian from Ethiopia in 2008, along with three other children.
“She was really passionate about loving and serving the people around her,” Qualls said of Kalkidian.
Qualls, along with the help of local church Real Life, hosted a Thanksgiving dinner at the 1912 Center, providing four one-hour meals for the Moscow community Wednesday.
“Even though I have been in charge of the organization of it I really do not feel like it is me who has done it,” Qualls said. “Besides all of the many volunteers and community coming around it I really think that God has been a huge provider for it.”
Qualls said the idea for the Share Thanksgiving project began two years ago Christ and Youth Conference in Corvallis, Oregon. She said the conference gave her the idea to organize a food drive and a Thanksgiving dinner in her community.
Qualls, then still a high school student, said she had no idea where or how to start the project. Eventually, she said her community came around her and supported her as she organized her first Share Thanksgiving dinner. Qualls also organizes a food drive that collects food from area schools, including Moscow High School and Pullman High School. As part of the food drive, Qualls said there are also various business drop locations.
“The cool thing is people found out about it and they just started doing it on their own, just taking on the initiative” Qualls said, adding that different churches, fraternities and daycares gathered food by themselves for the food drive.
While the dinner is not a Real Life event, Qualls said her church has been a great source of support in putting on the dinner.
“They have supported me a ton in it, and that is where most of my volunteers and donations come from,” Qualls said.
Megan Gospe can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @megan_gospe