A Thanksgiving meal isn’t always a reality to low-income families due to lack of funds. However, a group of students will be helping to provide meals to families in the Red Bud Apartment complex in McKinney on Monday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. followed by a game of flag football or board games depending on the weather.

The food drive targets the lowest income families in the apartment complex to help those most in need.

“For the Thanksgiving food drive, we ask the person who runs the apartments which families are the most needy and they give us a list of names and we gather Thanksgiving meals for them and put them together and deliver it to them a few days before Thanksgiving so they have time to cook it and everything for their families,” senior Hunter Pfaff said.

The food drive started through the Pfaff’s church, but has since expanded to help this apartment complex in more ways.

“I’ve been going to that same apartment complex since I was in the sixth grade and when I first started going we would help them out with their English and math and then we got more involved by doing projects, like my senior project which is the Angel Tree that my sister did two years ago,” Pfaff said.

Although the Pfaff family organizes the food drive, they receive a lot of help from organizations on campus.

“We have had a lot of help from people in the past, like FCA helped last year and whoever wants to help is allowed to help,” Pfaff said. “My mom and I are running it right now and people are coming over to my house Sunday to help make the meals.”

FCA has been involved in this the past three years.

“Mrs. Pfaff asked me if FCA would want to help putting the Thanksgiving meal together, so the last three years we have been helping with that,” FCA sponsor Shawn Purcell said. “If there are any leftovers it is going to go to the Collin County food bank.”

PALS is also getting involved this year by providing some of the food items to make the meals.

“The PALS program is going to Wal-Mart and we are going to buy all of the supplies for their Thanksgiving dinner,” senior Dan Cole said. “I am going to be trying to help buy a bunch of stuff and I am doing it out of pocket so that these kids can have that experience of Thanksgiving and being together and that unity with family.”

It is more than just a meal to the Pfaff’s and volunteers, however.

“They provide tutoring and do games and activities with them,” Purcell said. “They work with the kids’ parents with parenting skills. They are trying to help them with more than just food.”