BY KARISSA MILLER

The Christmas holiday season can be overwhelming for some children in the foster care system — creating anxiety and stress related to past trauma.

“I used to have a family — an actual family, but I had to leave,” explained 13-year-old “Henry,” who is currently in foster care.

“I don’t really know why I had to leave, but all I know is I had to leave when I was really little. I didn’t know my age or have a name, so I had to pick it,” he added.

Aside from having limited knowledge about his biological family, Henry is also spending the holidays completely apart from his siblings.

However, a group of people in the community came together to help create holiday memories for kids like Henry and their foster families.

On Monday morning, Henry and his foster parents sat together and ate a warm breakfast burrito and pancakes at the free annual holiday meal gathering at Burritos N Ribs in Troutman. It was complete with drinks, donuts and coffee, Santa Claus, a stocking and candy. A total of around 350 meals were served in the restaurant or delivered in the community.

“It’s great that they do this for the community. The food is awesome,” his foster mom said.

As she glanced over at Henry, he smiled as talked about his teachers. His foster parents, who were both in foster care as children, said they plan on taking a break from work and will spend quality time together this week.

At other tables in the restaurant, there was a mix of joy and pain, happiness and sadness in the children’s faces. There were also moments of pure excitement as the children and teens ate chocolate candies and held up various items in their stockings.

Items and food were donated by many generous groups in the community, including Troutman Rotary, the mayor of Troutman, Food Lion, the Iredell-Statesville Schools ESL Department and Zootastic.

Judy Whitehead, Children’s Home of Iredell County transitional worker, said that one of the youths that she is working with lost both parents.

“The holidays can be a difficult time for these kids. This event is a blessing, and it lets each child know that they aren’t forgotten,” she said.

Giving Back

Burritos N Ribs owner Ana Johnson said that the annual tradition started four years ago with the goal of giving back to the children in the community.

“When I started out, I had a lot of people in the community help me. I just wanted to help and give back to the community. It is the right thing to do,” Johnson said.

At the time, Mark Vaughn, a regular customer and Iredell-Statesville Schools Director of Student Well Being and Alternative Services, was eating in the restaurant. He helped move her idea along and wanted the event to support children in foster care or living in group homes.

“A lot of our group home kids don’t get to go home for Christmas or Thanksgiving. We wanted to make sure they had something special to look forward to when the other kids have things they do,” Vaughn explained.

Johnson and her husband and co-owner Miguel Cabeza were determined to see families get a good meal and were able to serve 200 meals that first year.

Since then, the event has flourished and grown to include the women’s shelter, firefighters, EMS and law enforcement. Meals are delivered by I-SS employees, including Northview Principal Eric Babbitt, South Principal Robert Little and Director of ESL Claudia Jimenez and others.

As the day unfolded, the spirit of helping, cooperation and Christmas was abundant.

“It’s a time for the kids and families to know someone cares about them and that they aren’t forgotten about during the holiday season,” said Babbitt, who was volunteering to deliver food and serve families in the restaurant.

Little said he liked seeing the smiles on people’s faces and explained that they were appreciative of the food that he delivered to the Women’s Shelter.

He belives it’s important for him to put service into action as the leader of the school because each week he reminds students of the motto “service, innovation, honor and success.”

Volunteer Jeanette Rankin, a receptionist at Northview, said, “This is a way to show the children that you care and love them. There are students out there who really need to know that.”

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