In honor of Christmas being around the corner, JJ’s Cafe on Northwest Highway will be taking toy donations for Boys & Girls Clubs until Wednesday, Dec. 17.

JJ’s Cafe owner Jose Ramirez is known for his charity during the holidays. For 12 years, he has supplied Thanksgiving meals for families in need. He does that to give back to the community and pay it forward, since he was once a recipient of this kind of help in his younger years when he needed that. 

Ramirez finds families to feed for Thanksgiving through social media, churches, Feed Lake Highlands and White Rock Center of Hope. This year, he prepared over 400 meals for more than 50 families with the help of contributions from East Dallas Networking and Dallas Referrals Network. Both of those groups, as well as the Greater East Dallas Chamber of Commerce, got together the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to package the meals.

“It went very smooth with all the help, with all the donations that I got and with all the community coming together,” Ramirez said. 

A special helper joined Ramirez during this year’s Thanksgiving giveaway — his 8-year-old son Jaxson. Ramirez said his kid loved being able to help out and meet people. And when they were done, they celebrated with a turkey, ham and dressing lunch.

“I wish I can pass that on to him to give back to the community,” Ramirez said.

Meals either were distributed to families via the organizations — those connected through White Rock Center of Hope got their meals through DoorDash — but some families picked up the food from the cafe. This moment is almost bigger than words can describe for the JJ’s Cafe owner. 

“That’s one of the hardest parts, handing them out, the meals, and them being so thankful,” Ramirez said. 

In the beginning, he only made Thanksgiving meals for a handful of families. And he planned to skip the giveaway during the pandemic because he didn’t have the funds for it, but the community came together and made it happen. 

“I’m very grateful to the community,” Ramirez said. “Lakewood, Lake Highlands, all the neighborhoods have really supported me. I’m in business because of the community.”

Contact JJ’s Cafe at 214-221-4659 or via email at jose@jjscafe.net for more information about the toy drive.