Peabody's Gina Goodwin Cooks Up Plenty Of Thanksgiving Cheer

PEABODY, MA —Thanksgiving was always a working holiday for Gina Goodwin.

As a community nurse for 25 years, the Peabody resident said in the days and weeks leading up to the holiday her patients would begin asking her if she was working that day — often so they could be assured to see at least one friendly face on a traditional day of gathering for family and friends.

"So I started making them meals and bringing them to work with me on Thanksgiving," she told Patch. "Sometimes we're the only faces they see. They don't have anybody. They really look forward to the nurse coming each day."

Goodwin said it was six years ago when word of her benevolence started to get around and she began Gina's Giving Back to deliver holiday meals to more North Shore residents in need.

By 2019, she said she was up to 500 meals.

This year, it will be more than 4,300.

"It really took off last year because of COVID," she said. "Everybody was really in need because of COVID, and loss of employment. And it's even more so this year. We have people coming up all weekend from as far as Weymouth.

"People are really struggling."

A caravan of deliveries will march toward Goodwin's Peabody home nearly nonstop for the next week bringing an assortment of turkeys, fixings, juices, breads and pies.

Inside, Goodwin will have the stove running on overdrive as her six children help her pack up either one of her packages of dinner items or a "heat-and-eat" meal for those who cannot cook themselves. She said 2,700 of the meals are pre-prepared ones this year with many requesting dinners saying they either don't have stoves or working electricity.

Just as Goodwin said she couldn't turn away those struggling when her patients asked if she was working and could pay a visit on Thanksgiving when she was a community nurse, she is doing her best to accommodate all requests this year.

"It’s insane but I will tell you that it's not just me," she said. "Between my family, and my kids are all involved.

"It’s a community."

She said Essex Tech conducted a food drive for Gina's Giving Back with students set to drop off six cars full of items on Friday. She has an assembly line of 25-pound turkeys headed to her oven over the next week. She's arranged for a trip to Worcester to pick up thousands of Table Talk Pies after the company offered to donate 750 of the individual pies and provide more at a discounted rate.

"As fast as it comes in, it goes out," she said.

Because she only has so much space in her home, especially for fully cooked meals, she has a schedule of pickups over the next week where those who need a meal can either collect it from her outdoor steps at a designated time or arrange to have one of the Goodwin children place the meal in their trunk.

Because of the coronavirus, she said she does not allow anyone in her home beyond her husband and children, therefore she does all the cooking herself.

She said she started cooking last weekend with 250 meals made and won't stop through the holiday.

"It's pretty much a daily job from now until Thanksgiving," she said.

(Gina's Giving Back collects donations to offset expenses and any food that needs to be purchased. Those looking to help Goodwin help so many others can donate here.)

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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