Thanksgiving meal giveaway in Merrillville, Ind. | ChicagoLIVE

Uh, we're going to get started on the show because we've got quite a few great guests that we're going to get to. This first one I'm very excited about. Uh, the spirit of Thanksgiving is alive in Northwest Indiana. Lerner and Rowe giving back, distributing 1,000. Free Thanksgiving meal packages this Saturday at the Dean and Barbara White Community Center in Maryville. Pickup begins at 9, while supplies last. So, an amazing thing that's happening out there. So, we're going to bring in our great guest, Jordan Marino, the Executive Director of Lerner & Rowe. Jordan, first of all, thank you for joining the show. Good to see you. How are you doing? Absolutely. Good morning. Thank you so much for having me. It is. It's the spirit of giving, and we're excited. We're excited to kick it off. Well, this is great. So, tell us just a little bit about what's happening out there. Yeah, doors just opened at the Dean and Barbara White Community Center in Merrillville, Indiana. We're giving away a thousand free meals to families. We know that times are tough right now. We know that things are expensive. It is expensive to buy food. It's expensive. You know, the holidays are coming. There's these stressors of financial burdens. And what are we going to do, whether it's a meal on the table? Presents Under the Tree, and we're excited to be able to kick it off with a Thanksgiving meal. A thousand families are going to be walking away with a free Thanksgiving meal. Thanks to Lerner and Rowe, and Lerner and Rowe gives back. The number is pretty astonishing, a thousand meal packages that they're doing. What can families expect to find inside each package? All the side dishes, all kind of your traditional Thanksgiving side dishes, plus a $25 gift card to the grocery store to go ahead and buy a meat of your choosing. If you like meat, ham, turkey. Vegetarian option, whatever you want. We really want to leave that up to you, but make sure that we have a meal on the table. We're also giving away some Lerner and Rowe swag. I have two small kids, so I don't know if you guys have children, but Squishy, Squishy Dumplings, I don't know if you're familiar with them. We're giving away little Squishy Dumpling toys that as much as I hate them because we've popped a thousand over the course of our house. They're fun and the kids love them, so a little something for the kids, a bunch of Lerner and Rowe swag we'll be giving away to each family too, hats, t-shirts, but also a donut and a water for the road too. So come in, Dean and Barbara White Community Center just opened, doors just opened, and we only have a thousand meals. Last I checked, the line was already kind of wrapped around the building, so it will go pretty quickly, but if you can, get down there, grab that meal. This is one stop of six that we have nationwide. Lerner & Rowe gives back, and Lerner & Rowe injury attorneys are a nationwide brand. We wrapped up Phoenix two days ago. We did Yuma yesterday, Overcome War on the West Coast, and now we're in Indiana today, so please check it out. So certainly a busy time for you guys. How did you get the idea for this? Yeah, we've been doing it over 10 years. And it's really something that Lerner and Rowe Gives Back is the foundation branch of Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys. We are so invested in the community that that is my job full time to be able to pump money back into the community, to be able to serve nonprofits, individuals. All those on the community side of those that we do business on the injury attorney side. So we've done everything from Thanksgiving meal giveaways the last 10 years. We also do a backpack giveaway in each of these kind of major markets as well. So we'll be doing that again. In July of 2027. So definitely keep a lookout for those opportunities. We do annual partnerships with nonprofits. It's about $2 million nationwide that Lerner and Rowe puts back into the community. I love that you guys are doing this, and you guys have a history of doing this. I mean, I think that this is so cool that, you know, I feel like, you know, we all hear about Lerner and Rowe. We all know Lerner and Rowe, but I feel like it's important to acknowledge how much you guys are, you know, to quote Jack Lemmon, you're sending the elevator back down, you're helping out the community, and I love that this is an aspect of your work that we're talking about. It is. The foundation itself has been around for 15 years, but it's something that we in 2027 are so focused on expanding, especially in the Chicagoland area. That is going to be a huge focus for us in 2027. So we have three kind of pillars of nonprofits and organizations that we look to work with, and that is health and human services, public safety, and youth programs. We've come to that umbrella mission to break socioeconomic barriers for vulnerable populations So while that's a mouthful, it's truly all about breaking cycles of poverty and getting back into the communities that need it the most. And we're going to be doing that a lot through our partnerships with sports teams, our partnerships with local nonprofits. It's a partner. We wrap our arms around, right? We want everybody to be part of it. We want for those that have always worked with us to continue to work with us. But we want our new partners and these new markets that we're breaking into to also be part of this. We want to hope that our hope is that everybody wants to get involved. And we hope that we can inspire others to whether you're a corporation or an individual, we can all do a little something because that is when we move mountains. I love this. All right. We are out of time, but one more time, let people know where they can come out. I know you mentioned the line already around the corner. So if you're interested, you got to get out there quick, but let people know where they can find you guys. It's the Dean and Barbara White Community Center in Merrillville, Indiana. And that's this stop. But if you want more information on maybe some other stops that we still have coming up or next year, learnerandrowgivesback.org. I love this. Jordan Marino, the Executive Director of Lerner & Rowe, thank you for taking the time to join us. Good to see you, and congratulations on all the amazing work that you guys are continuing to do. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thanks, guys.