A year ago, a dear friend and staff member at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Tallahassee, along with other committed employees and volunteers, dreamed of sharing a special meal with refugee families.
They wanted to help refugees understand the meaning and importance of Thanksgiving in America, one of few holidays with a general appeal and not overly commercialized.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provided the space for the meal, and the Tallahassee community rallied around this effort by the IRC to make the day special for refugee families who were anxious about what might be ahead for them under a new administration.
Tallahassee Fellowship members join an IRC employee in setting up for the 2024 Thanksgiving Feast for Refugees.
The Tallahassee Fellowship, the congregation I pastor, provided the paper goods for the event and worked together in creating lovely table decorations that refugee families could take home. Many of the community volunteers for IRC cooked or purchased foods to share which were indigenous to our refugees as reminders of their own home country and cuisine.
There was a craft table for the children and community volunteers provided transportation to and from the event. Our refugee neighbors seemed to enjoy the time spent with the community and volunteers seemed to derive much meaning from being a part of this special day. For some, it was especially profound considering the uncertainty of the days ahead for refugees, refugee service groups, and concerned citizens.
Second annual Thanksgiving Feast for Refugees
Which is what makes the second annual Thanksgiving Feast for Refugees in Tallahassee on Nov. 8 all the more amazing. With the reduction in funding for refugee resettlement agencies across the country and the release on Oct. 31 of the Presidential Determination on Refugee Admission for the fiscal year 2026, refugee services have been greatly reduced.
But the IRC in Tallahassee, along with dedicated community volunteers, showed how important it was to share this tradition and meal with our neighbors and have gone all out to make it happen yet again.
Table Decorations for the Thanksgiving Feast for Refugees in 2024.
World Freedom Day
It was on Nov. 8, 23 years ago, that then President George W. Bush established by proclamation that Nov. 9 would be recognized as World Freedom Day, joining America with other nations in commemorating the historic falling of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989.
Democracy, peace, and freedom are what refugees throughout the ages and around the world have sought in painfully leaving their beloved home countries and families to escape persecution and threat of death.
The hardships and grief they endure, many in refugee camps for years, to make their way to a better life, is a story of courage and resilience. The refugees in our own community have heartbreaking narratives of up to seven years in the governmental pipeline of coming to America.
While the stories are heartbreaking, the gratitude that they express for the help they are receiving is heart-reviving. Though they have little, they are eager to share a cup of tea or offer fruit or bread as an act of hospitality and kindness with those who help them.
Sharing kindness and empathy
I know of a small group of refugees who have been helped by a few local congregations and citizens in the community who are preparing a meal of their favorite ethnic foods to thank those of us who have helped them. And despite the hardships they face in our country, learning a new language and facing discrimination among the hardest, they hold on to dreams of liberty.
In 1995, Daniel Grollman wrote a book, “Emotional Intelligence,” identifying three types of empathy: cognitive, emotional, and compassionate.
Cognitive empathy involves taking another’s perspective intellectually without feeling what they might feel. Emotional empathy is feeling what someone else is feeling in your own body without understanding cognitively their lives and struggles. Compassionate empathy combines both cognitive and emotional empathy: you understand the other person’s situation, you feel what they feel, and you take a step further by acting to help the person.
While empathy of any type can be helpful, it is most helpful to move in the direction of compassionate empathy.
Compassionate action with food distribution
It is what we saw from Second Harvest of the Big Bend last weekend as they both understood the concern for many regarding the basic human need for food in light of the government shutdown, felt the fear and anxiety of the more than 96,000 individuals in our area alone who depend on SNAP benefits, and translated their cognitive and emotional empathy into compassionate action with an amazing food distribution in the Sears parking lot of the Governor’s Square mall on Nov. 1.
Second Harvest CEO, Monique Ellsworth, has already sent out an email “with gratitude and urgency” to rally the volunteers again to restock the warehouse and assist in distributing food to our neighbors with another distribution on Nov. 6.
Hundreds of cars snaked through the Governors Square Mall parking lot to receive groceries as part of the Second Harvest of the Big Bend food drive on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. Nearly 100 volunteers loaded boxes of food, cartons of eggs, milk and more into the back of vehicles.
Imagine my encouragement when I spoke with Jacob from Second Harvest on Nov. 3 about organizing a food distribution for refugees after the Thanksgiving Feast on Nov. 8. He wanted to know the details and asked how they might help. Two dry boxes to families who live in scarcity is an amazing gift. And this demonstration of compassionate empathy is happening in food banks all over the nation.
It is one of those moments when our humanity and connectedness with each other is most palpable.
We all have to eat, and as in times past in our nation, sharing what we have with each other is critical not only for the wellbeing of those who are hungry, but for the souls of those who have enough.
The IRC in Tallahassee and their volunteers continue to serve the refugee families that live in our community, doing as much as possible to give them every opportunity to be self-sustaining during a difficult time. This lovely meal on Saturday is a way they are tending to more than the basic need to eat, they are also tending to the soul and a sense of being held by a community that welcomes and cares for them. I pray that they feel a sense of belonging as we break bread together on Saturday.
And I pray if you have an interest in supporting refugees in our community, you will consider donating to a fund for emergency housing that is managed by ECHO in partnership with IRC in Tallahassee. Your donation will provide critical assistance to families in urgent need of rental assistance as they work toward self-sufficiency through the IRC’s Job Readiness program.
Contributions can be made online at secure.anedot.com or by mailing or delivering a check, made payable to ECHO and earmarked Refugee Emergency Housing Fund, to 548 E. Bradford Rd., Tallahassee, FL 32303.
The Rev. Candace McKibben
The Rev. Candace McKibben is an ordained minister and pastor of Tallahassee Fellowship.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Thanksgiving Feast, Second Harvest feed body and soul