Food For The Poor CEO presents Big Mama with $5,000 to help with Thanksgiving meals

Big Mama says she will be able to buy 500 turkeys for the needy with donation

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. – Food For The Poor is a large charity organization that feeds people all over the world. In fact, they feed nearly 2 million people six days a week.

And on Thursday, they helped a local philanthropist and community angel known as Big Mama.

Food For The Poor CEO Robin Mahfood presented Big Mama and her team at the Royal Assembly Church of the Living with a $5,000 check.

The Fort Lauderdale native and urban celebrity, thanks to her kindness, said she will be able to buy 500 turkeys with the generous gift and all the money will go directly to the needy in the South Florida community. 

"At this time of year, especially at Thanksgiving, there is so much to be thankful for in life. For health and for good people around us," Mahfood said. "I want to thank you for what you are doing."

"Right now, this is awesome," Essie "Big Mama" Reed said. "As I speak to you right now, I have a couple hundred turkeys that are due, but this right here will carry me farther. A lot of people are still in need right here in South Florida, and we need more people like this to come into the community. Not just give the money, but come see what I am doing so you know exactly where the funds are going."

Big Mama has been handing out Thanksgiving meals to the poor for 16 years, but her kindness and charity work is a year-round labor of love.

Nearly everyone in need in South Florida knows Big Mama and her inspiring story.

As a young mother of three, she was penniless, homeless and relied on the kindness of strangers. She said she has been paying it forward ever since.