For Atlanta chef, fighting food insecurity on Thanksgiving is personal

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – While most people take time off work during Thanksgiving, Tim Morgan is gearing up for the biggest meal of the year.

“The logistics of this started about two weeks ago,” Morgan said.

Two weeks or two years, it doesn’t matter to Morgan. He’s always preparing for something.

“I have not had a vacation in ten years,” he said. “I have not had an off day in over a year-and-a-half.”

Wednesday’s work, which will bleed into Thursday morning, is preparing 1,200 meals and 1,500 pounds of turkey to help the food-insecure

Don’t forget the green beans.

“Oven-roasted green beans, cornbread dressing, macaroni and cheese, apple cobbler,” Morgan said, listing off food items.

For Morgan, feeding the homeless and those suffering from food security isn’t just about cooking.

“On July 12, 2012, I fell homeless and lost everything I had,” he said. “Found myself sleeping in the backseat of a car.”

Homeless and a 9th-grade dropout, Morgan managed to fight his way into a living. But he has not forgotten that feeling nor repressed his desire to feed and serve others, which inspired him to found Aprons of Change.

“All of my employees who work for me also have a taboo background such as mine,” he said.

That reminder is why he’s pulling an all-nighter, cooking up not just 1,500 pounds of turkey but also an immeasurable amount of humanity.

“When it’s made with love and passion, it tastes different,” Morgan said. “It moves differently.”

Aprons of Change and Hosea Helps, now in its 52nd year of providing services to those in need, begin their distribution on Thanksgiving at 7:30 a.m. They’ll stop at extended-stay hotels, nursing homes, and on the side of roads and highways.

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