PANAMA CITY — One local girl knows something about feeding a family.
For the past four years, Kat Hutt has spent days leading up to Thanksgiving purchasing items needy families would need to make a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Twenty-five local needy families will receive Thanksgiving food baskets as a result of the 13-year-old girl’s efforts.
“It’s just really cool and satisfying,” Kat said Tuesday at Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, where baskets were assembled and distributed. “It’s really important to show that young adults can be generous, they can give back to their community … without adult prompting and help.”
In order to purchase items, she asked for donations at churches and civic club events, she said, and was able to raise $2,000 for her program.
Recipients of Hutt’s program, Kidz Do Kare, are clients at Healthy Start of Bay, Franklin and Gulf counties. Healthy Start social workers picked up and distributed the Kidz Do Kare donations Tuesday.
Recipients of the baskets remain anonymous.
Sharon Owens, executive director at Healthy Start, said recipients of the baskets are “appreciative,” and one woman who recently lost her job was in tears when she learned she’d receive a basket.
“It’s just amazing really,” Owens said.
Kat, the daughter of Healthy Start board member Trey Hutt, organized a handful of her peers to help out with assembling and distribution Tuesday.
Tedy Seto, 13, said she “never imagined” someone as young as Kat could “do something this great in the community.”
“It feels amazing that I can make a difference in this community,” Tedy said.