Forty years ago, Janet Easley made a Thanksgiving dinner to share with the community at her church, Sunrise Missionary Baptist Church. It grew, and they moved to her aunt’s store across from Watkins Park. It grew again, and they moved to the Watkins Park Family Center. Through all these changes, she kept making Thanksgiving dinner every year.
She made turkeys, stuffing, all the sides and her famous sweet potato pie. When COVID-19 hit, Easley and her assistant coordinator Bobbie Jones continued helping neighbors near Watkins Park, but switched from cooking a meal to handing out free turkeys.
If you go
🗓️ Saturday, Nov. 23 starting at 9 a.m.
📍 Watkins Park, 2360 Doctor M.L.K. Jr St.
🦃 Drive up to get a free turkey, while supplies last
Easley, 67, is from Northeast Indianapolis, but she helps people near Watkins Park.
On Saturday, Easley, Jones, the Watkins Park park rangers and a team of volunteers will bundle up and start handing out turkeys at 9 a.m. It’s a turkey drive-thru. Each car can get one turkey, and it will end when the last turkey is handed out.
Her goal is to give out 400 turkeys this year. She’s got about 275 so far, and she’s still accepting donations. Call Easley at 317-709-0984 or Jones at 317-361-5149 if you want to donate or volunteer to pass out turkeys.
“They said it’s going to be about 30 degrees this Saturday. We’ll be out there in the cold. I’m going to dress warm, but we’re going to give the turkeys out regardless,” Easley said.
Thanksgiving Day will be a little more quiet this year at Easley’s house. Her son died unexpectedly last year, and her 10-year-old granddaughter also died from cancer.
“She loved Thanksgiving, being on that line, serving down there, helping in there,” Easley said about her granddaughter. “And she would be in the kitchen with me, helping me make the pies.”
Easley also is recovering from surgeries, but she said she will not stop helping as long as there are people struggling.
“Until they roll me out into a box, I’m going to continue giving out turkeys and I’m going to continue doing what I need to do,” she said.
Before her mission to hand out turkeys, Easley used to make 600 sweet potato pies every year. When asked for her recipe, she said she doesn’t have one. She boils sweet potatoes, adds eggs, sugar, cornstarch and nutmeg – no cinnamon – and doesn’t measure. Her husband is her taste tester.
“One of my friends from my husband’s job called me. ‘Miss Easley can you talk me through the sweet potato pie?’” she said. “I said, ‘Baby, I can help you, talk you through it, but I can’t promise you it’ll come out the way you want it to.”
She said her husband will fuss that she’s cooking too much food, but she doesn’t know how to do it any other way.
Mirror Indy reporter Sophie Young covers services and resources. Contact her at sophie.young@mirrorindy.org.
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