A Nova Scotia family will sit down to pizza Monday night instead of a traditional Thanksgiving turkey, because they've decided to donate their holiday meal to those in need, and they've been encouraging others to do the same.
Jacob Boudreau, 9, came up with the idea of donating his family's Thanksgiving meal after watching the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness," a film about a homeless father and son trying to get back on their feet.
Boudreau's mother, Shelley Clee, said the movie had a strong impact on her son, who later decided that he wanted to do something to help the homeless.
That's when he came up with the idea of donating their turkey dinner to those less fortunate.
A week before the holiday Monday, Boudreau and his family kicked off his project, called "Jacob's Project." Together, they took to social media in an effort to collect food and monetary donations for the poor.
They created a Facebook page for "Jacob's Project," and also filmed a video in which Boudreau explains why he wants to help others.
He told CTV Atlantic the movie got him thinking about others who don't have the basic necessities of life.
"I don't think it's right for some people not to have food, or water or a house… so I wanted to do something about it," he said.
Soon, news of "Jacob's Project" spread, and others donated money and food so that 22 extra families were fed this Thanksgiving.
Last Friday, Boudreau and his mother gathered the donations and brought them to the Hope Cottage soup kitchen in Halifax.
Catherine Hutt from Hope Cottage said it is inspiring to see young people spearheading charitable initiatives like "Jacob's Project."
"It's wonderful, you know, how young children like that think of other people that are in need. It just blew me away," she said, adding that everyone at Hope Cottage was touched by his actions.
"Everybody was so overwhelmed, because he's such a young child…but there are a lot of good people out there in the world."
With a report from CTV Atlantic's Suzette Belliveau
