Back when she waited tables as a teenager in Nashville, Candice O'Brien Beasley would watch people dine along in booths during the holidays. Now that she owns her own restaurant, O'Brien's Southern Diner, in Ashland City, Tennessee, The Washington Post reports that Beasley, now 39, serves free Christmas dinners to anyone who wants one on December 25.
With the help of some 30 volunteers, she also boxes up and delivers food to about 300 people in the area who have nobody to celebrate with or can't afford the fixings for their own holiday dinner. “I know what it’s like to go without food, to have nothing in the house during a holiday time or any time,” explains Beasley, who says she "struggled" while shuttlecocking between the homes of her divorced parents growing up.