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Jennifer Garner is celebrating the holiday season by giving back.
The actress, 53, spent Thanksgiving morning volunteering at The Midnight Mission’s annual charity lunch on Skid Row in Los Angeles, and shared a sweet message on the organization’s official Instagram page alongside a video.
“My name is Jen and today I’m grateful for this beautiful day, for life, for the Los Angeles community who is here taking care of their own, for my family, all the things,” she said. “Wherever you live, there is somebody helping feed people who have food insecurity and people who are unhoused. Find those people and help them.”
“In Los Angeles, Downtown LA, it’s Midnight Mission,” Garner continued. “They do such an incredible job of not only feeding but serving this community with love, with dignity, with respect and with heaps and heaps of mashed potatoes, because that’s what I’m in charge of.”
“From Hollywood to Skid Row, it’s all about heart,” the caption read. “Thank you, Jennifer Garner, for jumping on mashed potato duty and helping us serve Thanksgiving with dignity, hope, and a whole lot of love. #themidnightmission #losangeles #Thanksgiving”
BACKGRID
Garner also took to her own Instagram to commemorate the day, sharing a series of images and clips showing “Crazy things I Have done for my job,” including learning to turn wood and taking equestrian lessons.
“I am grateful that my job asks me to learn bits of so many things,” she wrote. “Grateful for patient teachers. And am grateful for everyone here who plays along.”
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This wasn’t Garner’s first time spending her Thanksgiving volunteering. Last year she was joined by Ben Affleck (the pair split in 2015 after 10 years of marriage) and their three children — Violet Anne, 19, Seraphina Rose, 16, and Samuel, 13.
A source told PEOPLE at the time that: “They truly enjoy giving back to their community and cherishing quality time together as a family.”
Affleck, 53, has also been working with the organization, which has been in operation since 1914, for several years. He first learned about it through a parent at one of his children’s schools, and previously opened up to PEOPLE about supporting their efforts.
“I found that I get a lot out of giving a little bit of my time to other people. I don’t know that it helps them or not, but I know it’s helpful to me,” he said in 2020. “It’s easy to sort of throw up your hands and say there’s nothing you can do.”
