Tupelo Salvation Army Thanksgiving meal goes back to one womans kitchen and big heart | News [Video]

TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) — The Salvation Army in Tupelo has been serving a Thanksgiving lunch for more than 50 years.

The annual event has been happening beyond that though.

“You wouldn’t believe the lives that I’ve seen changed,” Jennie Lynn Johnson said.

It dates back to when she started serving her community a Thanksgiving meal from her own kitchen.

Her husband cooked the turkey and she cooked all the side dishes.

“It started off with 150 people and it got bigger and bigger,” she recalled.

Ten years later, Johnson served on the steering committee bringing the Salvation Army to Tupelo.

That’s when the annual lunch moved to the organization’s building on Carnation Street.

“One of the captains told me, ‘You know, Jennie, …