For many justice-involved youth, the holidays can be complicated. Some come from families facing food insecurity or unstable housing. Others live in homes where resources are stretched thin, or where family relationships make large holiday meals difficult to navigate.
For OYA’s parole and probation officers, supporting youth means paying attention to these realities – not just court dates, accountability requirements, or treatment plans. “We’re usually looked at as the ones holding the kids accountable,” Marion County parole and probation officer Funaki Letisi says, but doing the job successfully means “reminding [youth] that there are people in the community that care for them.”
One way Funaki does this annually is by helping youth break bread with their loved ones every Thanksgiving. Drawing on local community resources, and with the support of Marion County Field Supervisor Mike Runyon, Funaki coordinates donated meal boxes for youth and families on the caseload of the Marion office.
Funaki has been organizing this effort for about eight years. It started simply, with Funaki going to his church (Dayspring in Keizer) and picking up “whatever they had leftover” to share with youth and families in need. Now, he sends a note to the office to gauge the need, then works to find enough boxes to meet whatever that need is.
Dayspring has been a constant source, and this year they provided twelve complete Thanksgiving boxes – “pans, gravy, everything… 25-pound bags of potatoes, rolls, stuffing, medium to large turkeys,” according to Funaki. The boxes are big enough to feed eight people, and they go quickly: after a mic-day pick-up on Monday, the boxes were gone by evening.
With youth and families still in need, Funaki found another resource on Tuesday: the student leadership program at South Salem High School, supported by Activities Director and leadership teacher Aaron Howard. South Salem runs two major food drives each year, collecting canned goods, shelf-stable groceries, and donations that the staff convert into full meal boxes.
Aaron said students and staff stepped up quickly. “One class alone brought in 631 items,” he said, noting the drive both met the Thanksgiving need and kept the school’s pantry well-stocked. Aaron said South’s student leaders try to keep their peers fed in part because “when people are hungry, they don’t act themselves” – an observation that might also be extended to youth on OYA’s supervision and their families.
While the majority of this year’s collection went to South families, students set aside six complete boxes for OYA youth, along with extra canned goods and pantry items. These extra items will be held at the Marion office to support youth and families beyond the Thanksgiving meal. Families, Funaki noted, may be unable to access public food resources for a variety of reasons, and parole / probation officers can easily grab items from the office and deliver them when the need arises.
The need comes from many directions. Some families have a youth in a residential program but still need support at home. Others have a young person living independently or in a shared household. Funaki noted one youth on his caseload to just had a baby before adding: “We pretty much give a box to anybody who needs one.”
For Funaki, the Thanksgiving effort isn’t about the holiday so much as it is about stability. When a family has enough food in the house, he says, everything else gets a little easier — appointments, school, communication, safety. The boxes are simply another tool the Marion office uses to keep youth connected and supported as they navigate a challenging time in their lives.