College student provides Christmas meals on St. Helena Island: ‘I just wanted to give back’
Lady’s Island college student Ting O’Regan was stuck at home due to the pandemic earlier this month when she had an idea.
A decade ago, when O’Regan was 12-years-old, she and the rest of her family had helped serve meals to the hungry early one Christmas Day in the Beaufort area.
That memory stuck with O’Regan. So she called around this year, asking if she could volunteer at any similar events, given COVID-19’s economic toll.
But due to the pandemic, O’Regan said she couldn’t find any spots planning to serve free meals to those in need.
She decided to take matters into her own hands.
“I just wanted to give back this year,” said O’Regan, 22, who’s a senior studying nursing at the University of South Carolina Upstate.
O’Regan marshalled together a group of about 20 volunteers to provide free hot meals to St. Helena Island residents from noon to 2 p.m. Friday at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park. The group also packed dozens of bags and boxes full of nonperishable food for people to eat after the holiday.
“I think it’s super important for people to have food not only Christmas Day, but after Christmas, as well,” O’Regan said.
The group, all wearing face masks, as of 3 p.m. had given out more than 200 hot meals, O’Regan said. The meals included turkey, ham or chicken, corn, beans, gravy, a roll and homemade cookies.
O’Regan added that the event cost about $3,000 and was almost entirely covered by donations.
Beginning just after noon, a steady stream of people began to drop by, each wishing a muffled “Merry Christmas” through their masks.
It was 39 degrees Fahrenheit, and the wind whipped leaves around as volunteer Dave Gault, 47, helped walk some food down the street.
“Everybody, no matter how hard you work or how good you do, everybody needs help at some point. And some people don’t have family around,” said Gault, of Lady’s Island.
Gault, a family friend of O’Regan’s, added that it was particularly important this year to help the hungry, given the fallout of COVID-19.
Feeding America, a national nonprofit, has predicted that 50 million people could experience hunger due to the coronavirus. In 2019, meanwhile, roughly 35 million people lived in food insecure households, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Local nonprofits and the Lowcountry Food Bank have also reported a surge in demand for emergency relief in 2020, with people struggling to make ends meet as COVID-19 cases mount.
O’Regan was excited to see the first few cars pull up off Sea Island Parkway on Christmas Day.
“I wanted to help the community,” she said, adding that she would love to run the event again next year.
