'Big Mama' receives big check after charity headquarters scorched in fire

Food for the Poor presents Big Mama with $7,000 check Monday

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – South Florida's "Big Mama" received some help Monday, a month after she suffered a setback after a devastating fire at her charity's headquarters in Fort Lauderdale. 

Essie "Big Mama" Reed, of Team of Life, still has a lot of work to do at her headquarters in Fort Lauderdale.

The inside is still covered with smoke damage and is basically gutted. But the gift she received on Monday will help her feed a lot of people who depend on her. 

The international relief organization, Food for the Poor, gave Big Mama a check for $7,000, which will help her buy hundreds of turkeys to help feed families in need for Thanksgiving and even help pay to clean up her Fort Lauderdale charity headquarters.

"I'm going to be able to cook, feed and get my center back in order a little bit. This will help me," Reed said. 

Every year, Big Mama and her charity, Team of Life, provide hundreds of meals for needy families in the area, and she said this year, she needs more help than ever in providing those meals.

"When you go and buy that turkey for Big Mama and her children and her families, because we have to do our work here in South Florida," Reed said. 

Big Mama and her family are still working hard to clean up the inside of her charity's headquarters.

She said they are working on getting someone to come in and do the demolition on her place before an electrician can do rewiring work.