BANNER ELK, N.C. — Ahead of Thanksgiving, thousands of Helene victims in the North Carolina mountains got free meals Tuesday.
It’s all thanks to a partnership between Mooresville-based Lowe’s and several area restaurants.
Tuesday saw the best kind of assembly line, with Lowe's workers handing out all the fixings - from sweet potato casserole to green beans and turkey.
It's an assembly line Peggy Trivette is grateful for.
"This is wonderful, it's hope for people who have had a lot of loss and provides a good meal and makes everything nicer for the holiday," she said.
Trivette and her family joined hundreds in line at the Boone Lowe’s location for a free Thanksgiving meal.
"We are very blessed for them to be doing this for us," she said.
Lowe’s teamed up with locally owned restaurants across the mountains of western North Carolina who all suffered after the hurricane. The home improvement retail giant paid the restaurants to make the meals – and then gave them away to storm victims.
Chris Reynolds is the store manager at the Lowe's location in Boone. He shared more about the special day with WCNC Charlotte.
"Lowe’s intentionally chose local catering companies to take care of our community needs and it’s a double win so we’re not only helping the community from Thanksgiving meal prep, but also helping local small businesses," he said.
Liz Macatherine, the catering manager for Reid’s Café and Catering in Banner Elk, said their business took a huge hit because Helene happened just before the busy tourist season. The owner had to lay off dozens of workers, so they were especially grateful to get the call from Lowe's. The company ordered 1,000 meals from them.
"You wait for October to make your money for the year and we did not have October, so that was pretty significant," she said.
The Lowe’s order meant the Reid's team was able to hire back some of the people who they previously couldn’t afford to have on staff.
"It's free food for our neighbors and I get to tell my staff 'You can get hours that you didn’t get'. It just feels really full circle like everybody is helping each other," she said.
That’s exactly why Reynolds got so emotional.
"This is my community, I take it personally," he said.
The Boone store was among those flooded by Helene. He and his team worked to be able to open the very next day so that community members could get the supplies they needed to repair their homes.
"It is truly heartwarming. We were open the very next day for this community and we want to make sure we were here for the community and continue to be here for the community," he said. "I'm just proud to be here today handing this food out to people for Thanksgiving.
In all, 12,000 people got free meals Tuesday.
Contact Michelle Boudin at mboudin@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.