Sisters, 9 and 6, raise over $4,500 for 195 Thanksgiving meals with turkeys for those in need

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Two North Carolina sisters raised over $4,500 to donate 195 Thanksgiving meal boxes with turkeys for those in need in their community this year. 

It’s a tradition that sisters Alex Fischer, 9, and Caroline Fischer, 6, have done with their mother Lisa Fischer for the third year. The family provided the food boxes to Charlotte Rescue Mission. 

The girls started the project in 2017, with a then 7-year-old Alex, who took initiative and then inspired her sister to join the charitable effort. Lisa said they were looking “for a service project to do as a family.” That first year, the girls raised enough money to donate 101 boxes and 30 turkeys. 

In 2018, the girls donated 130 boxes and 50 turkeys, raising $2,276 through lemonade stands, bake sales and “generous donations made by family, friends and even total strangers” from a GoFundMe campaign. 

This year, the girls have raised a total of $4,575 to donate 195 meal boxes. At first, their goal this year was to raise enough money to provide 50 food boxes and 50 turkeys, but they have far surpassed their goal. 

The family’s 2019 GoFundMe page, “The Fischer Sisters Thanksgiving Mission,” raised $3,433 out of their $1,000 goal from 62 donors as of Monday.  

The sisters also raised additional money through three lemonade stands this year, raising a total of $1,142. Each lemonade stand also included a bake sale, Lisa said. 

The Thanksgiving meal boxes contain other food items, including green beans, whole-kernel corn, cut sweet yams, cranberry sauce, Stove Top stuffing mix, turkey or brown gravy mix, boil-in-bag rice, dry pie crust mix, cherry or apple filling and a disposable baking pan for pie. 

The mom said the entire philanthropic experience has been humbling. 

“Obviously, we’re very proud of them (Alex and Caroline). It’s almost like there are no words to describe it. It’s very humbling to see how many people in the community want to help them. There’s so many neighbors and friends and just strangers that have stopped at their lemonade stand or have come back multiple times. We’ve just had the nicest people,” the mother said. 

 Lisa said she hopes to have her family keep up the tradition every year. 

“We’re just excited,” she said. “It’s very overwhelming in a good way to see how much this has grown.” 

This story was reported from Los Angeles.