SAN ANTONIO — It’s a feast fit for kings and queens! Kids from Roy Maas Youth Alternatives (RMYA) are feeling the love with their bellies and hearts full.
Thanksgiving dinner was served to foster kids at Lana Duke’s 19th Annual Thanksgiving Feast. RMYA helps children and families in crisis to end the cycle of trauma and abuse.
“Thanks to society and so many wonderful people in my life, I was able to turn around some trauma that I had in my life as a child,” Duke said.
You may already know Lana Duke as the owner of Ruth’s Chris Steak House but did you know she was a foster child?
“I have angels now that I’m so grateful for, because nobody can ever be happy on their own, they need help,” she said.
Duke has been lending a hand to foster kids for the past 20 years. For many foster kids, this Thanksgiving dinner is a first. RMYA programs help children navigate through the trauma of physical and sexual abuse, abandonment, violence and neglect.
Former foster kid, Earnest Jones, remembers attending these feasts years ago.
“Beautiful experience, I will never forget,” Jones said. “You walk in and you feel like you don’t belong and Lana made sure we do belong in an environment like this. I made a vow to myself that I would be here again, again and again. So this is a remembrance of my first experience.”
To help support children of the Roy Maas Youth Alternatives, click here.