24-year-old Albany native to host community Thanksgiving dinner

ALBANY – Daysha Polite was born and raised here, and she said she’s well-aware of the city’s challenges with food insecurity, crime and division. 

So the 24-year-old said she wants to bring the city’s residents together on Thanksgiving. Polite is bringing the Art.Sply Community Thanksgiving Dinner to Albany through her soon-to-be registered nonprofit on Thanksgiving Day at 2401 MLK Jr. Dr. in Albany. From noon to 4 p.m. on Nov. 27, the community is invited to sit down for a free Thanksgiving meal as well as live music and available care packages.

“People can come and sit and be in fellowship with each other,” Polite said. 

Polite’s been involved with community service of this nature since 2022 when she started doing food and clothes drives, water handouts during high heat and to-go Thanksgiving dinners. At the Thanksgiving event, people were able to come pick up a packaged Thanksgiving meal. 

She said she gave out more than 150 Thanksgiving dinners one year.  Polite said she chose this year to make it a sit-down event to promote togetherness in the city. 

She said this holiday season is extra stressful for people with federal cuts creating scares for benefits like those in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as well as the frequency of local violent crime. Polite said she’s noticed that Albany’s crime rate is in correlation with people not having access to financial stability and healthy foods. 

“All those things are connected, and I feel like the government shutdown and changes in the political space have caused a lot more tension and distress in the community,” she said. “I wanted to create a space where people could feel more relaxed when they’re eating.” 

While people sit to eat, they’ll be joined by fellow community members. Polite’s partners and sponsors of the event have recruited local musicians and DJs to keep the environment fun and carefree. 

Polite is also going into 2026 with plans to officially register her organization, CLOUD 9 Inc., as a nonprofit. CLOUD stands for community, love, opportunity, unity and drive. The 9 is an ode to Albany’s area code, 2-2-9. 

She said this nonprofit will serve the community, especially youths and families. Polite said being born and raised in Albany, she noticed a lot of the issues youths face in schools or with behavior and attitude come from inadequate necessities at home. Polite said she’s researched how low-access to healthy food options becomes a determinant for poor behavior and performance within school. 

“As the organization evolves, I want to implement programs that are able to help not just children or families, but all of them as a unit … helping gain access to jobs and getting an understanding of healthy eating and things like that,” Polite said. 

To find out more information about the event, visit https://linktr.ee/artsply?utm_source=qr_code.

“People should just expect a lot of love and empathy with anything they have going on,” Polite said about the event. “I want people to feel like they’re not alone. Spilling love and community is still important and it’ll help us get through things such as high crime rates and health disparities.”