ENFIELD, N.S. – Jacob Boudreau is embracing the Thanksgiving spirit by front-running a project to raise awareness for people in need.
While many families across Canada will be preparing their own Thanksgiving meal Monday, the Boudreaus are choosing to prepare food for others.
“I wanted to give up my Thanksgiving,” says Jacob.
The nine-year-old from Enfield, N.S. is the creator of The Jacob Project, which has helped feed 22 families this holiday.
“I don’t think it’s right for some people not to have food or water or a house. So, I wanted to do something about it,” he says.
Jacob sat down with his family to watch The Pursuit of Happyness about a year ago. In the 2006 film, actor Will Smith and his real-life son play a salesman and his son struggling through financial hardship.
Jacob says the movie inspired him to help others.
In the last week, Jacob took to social media to get the word of his project out there.
“I made a video, and I wanted to try and make people do acts of kindness.”
“He’s leading the way,” says Jacob’s mother Shelley Clee. “It’s been very emotional this week; we’ve had so much outpouring.”
Shelley isn’t the only one who’s thrilled with her son’s efforts.
“It’s wonderful you know, how young children like that think of other people that are in need. It just blew me away,” says Catherine Hutt of the Hope Cottage soup kitchen.
On Friday, Jacob and his mother stopped by Hope Cottage to donate many fixings for the organization’s turkey dinner.
“Everybody was so overwhelmed because he’s such a young child, you know 9 years of age,” Hutt says. “Who would ever think of that, you know? But there are a lot of good people out there in the world.”
The Boudreaus will still spend Thanksgiving weekend together. But, they won’t be worrying about the meal they gave up.
“Because they need it more than me,” says Jacob.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Suzette Belliveau.
