Millington, TN. — If you’ve been around the military for any length of time, you know that as Thanksgiving Day approaches, most installations host some type of program through the Chaplain’s Office to financially assist those who might need a helping hand with preparing a holiday meal.
While Naval Support Activity (NSA) Mid-South is no different from other Navy Installation, the end result of this year’s Food Drive almost seems like, well, a holiday miracle.
“For me Thanksgiving is a time to thank God for the blessing that he has given,” said LCDR Patrick Williams, Command Chaplain, NSA Mid-South. “It’s a great way to start off the holiday season!”
During the government shutdown, the Chaplains Office saw some of our NSA Families were struggling and in need of assistance and started to pass the word asking for support in the way of non-perishable food.
“I stepped out in faith, as a result our first donation was from the city of Millington who donated over 400 pounds of food.” Williams continued, “The city then started reaching out to the community and from there word got out. We started receiving phone calls from across the Mid-South area from people and organizations that wanted to help.”
Chaplain Williams explained how the city, through various organizations, banded together and raised over 3,000 pounds of food for donations to affected service members and employees.
As October rolled into November, the food never stopped coming.
“We in the Chaplain’s Office started a partnership that stretched across the base, and became the single point of collection and distribution so that we could all work collectively instead of working independently,” said Williams. “It was a steady flow of food that has been coming in over the last month and a half.”
Chaplain Williams went on to explain how service members and retirees jumped in and with the help of the base Commissary, made sure the flow of food continued.
“The Commissary had prepackaged bags for either 15 or 25 dollars that could be purchased and dropped into a collection bin,” he said, “every couple of weeks they would call and ask us to come get them.”
The Mid-South community came together through the Government shutdown and into Thanksgiving to feed over 430 families both on and off base.
“They didn’t just make sandwiches; they provided 430 families with full meals adding up to over 11 thousand pounds of non-perishable food with an approximate value of over 22 thousand dollars,” explained Chaplain Williams, “the Thanksgiving food drive alone delivered 241 meals which included 241 turkeys.”
The community wasn’t giving out of abundance but because they just wanted to support their neighbors, the chaplain explained.
“We had people come up with tears in their eyes saying thank you for what you are doing.” Chaplain Williams continued, “I wasn’t doing anything; I just got to be the face of this amazing community that wanted to support and help one another.”
“It was really humbling. We’re a relatively small base and to have this much food come in was amazing! Very simply put, Thank You!!
| Date Taken: | 11.26.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 11.26.2025 15:45 |
| Story ID: | 552512 |
| Location: | MILLINGTON, TENNESSEE, US |
| Web Views: | 27 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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