A South Carolina convenience store is spreading the Thanksgiving spirit in a "mighty jumbo" way.
Earlier this month, a lucky customer purchased a $10 Mighty Jumbo Bucks scratch-off lottery ticket and ended up with $350,000 in winnings.
"Thank you to the customer who mailed us a copy of the winning ticket. That was so nice."
And the KP Food Mart, which sold the winning ticket, raked in a cool $3500 as their 1% seller's bonus.
It was a pretty big deal for the little store which only opened in the community a few months ago. The $3500 would have gone a long way as a cash infusion toward ramped up advertising, staffing, or store inventory or upgrades. But store manager Aggi Tarnowski had other plans for the unexpected funds.
"We're going to have a Thanksgiving dinner for all of my walk-in traffic and homeless people around here, said Tarnowski. "We're cooking all the sides, turkeys, everything, the whole nine yards. The food is going to be free for all who need it."
Tarnowski and her store supervisor, Melissa Grimmette, plan to cook the feast together and serve any and all who come asking until the food is gone.
"She has a lot of traffic and people coming in who need food," said Grimmette. ‘She gives away the biscuits and things after a certain time, so she already wanted to do this."
Tarnowski is an immigrant from Poland, and hopes that the shared meal will not only spread "positive vibes" in the community but hopes it also "shows the people [that] us, as foreigners, can have good input in the community."
"I might not have much," Tarnowski said, "but whatever I have, I'd give it all away. I will get it back tenfold and I will be blessed for it."
Now that's the spirit of Thanksgiving.
