A lightning strike tore through Jeanne Michon's backyard Thursday night, igniting a fire that destroyed her family's shed in Woonsocket along with decades of keepsakes inside, including bicycles, train sets, clothes, golf clubs and a toolbox she bought her husband for their first anniversary. Now the community she has spent 40 years feeding is rallying to help her family rebuild.
Michon said a loud bang rang out before her daughter told her the shed was on fire, according to WJAR. She recorded video showing flames rising from the structure and reaching nearby trees as the fire consumed everything inside, including the toolbox she described as a sentimental first-anniversary gift. “You can see the toolbox that I bought my husband in 1990 for our first anniversary,” Michon said.
Michon is no stranger to giving. She has volunteered to cook free meals in Woonsocket for four decades, work that eventually grew into the nonprofit New Beginnings, which the station reports has now served more than 139,000 meals to people in need. “We feed anybody who comes to the door, we don't ask any questions, we help anybody in need in the city,” Michon said.
Coworker Launches Fundraiser for the Woman Who Gives to Everyone Else
Her coworker, John Levreault, started a fundraiser to help the family recover, saying it was the least he could do for someone who has given so much to others. He described Michon's work ethic in stark terms, telling the station that she works 118 hours a week, earns minimum wage, and still gives everything she has. “Jeanne works here 118 hours a week, the woman makes minimum wage as a pay, and she gives 110 percent,” Levreault said, adding that she has shown up for the community every single day for 40 years.
Michon, for her part, has tried to deflect attention away from herself and toward the people helping her. She said she is grateful for the support coming from her family and from communities across Woonsocket and northern Rhode Island, but she has been careful not to pressure anyone into contributing. “I don't want anybody to feel obligated to give, we will find a way to make a way,” she said.
From a Soup Kitchen to a Community Fixture
New Beginnings has grown substantially since its earliest days. Michon and two other women originally decided to keep a struggling soup kitchen open and rename it, according to a February 2026 report from The Valley Breeze, which at the time put the group's meal count above 100,000 and noted it was serving up to 140 meals a day. By March, Michon told turnto10.com's Show Us Something Good segment that the total had climbed past 137,000 meals served since 2018. According to the nonprofit's own website, New Beginnings has operated under that name since November 13, 2017, and now serves more than 300 people hot, home-cooked meals four days a week across the greater Woonsocket area. The site also lists Michon as executive director and Levreault as president.
The scale of that need is tied to broader struggles in the city. A 2024 Boston Globe investigation described the 8-square-mile city as Rhode Island's largest food desert, noting it had just one grocery store within its limits, a Price Rite about three miles from downtown. The same report found that roughly 12,000 residents, or about 28 percent of the population, received federal food assistance, while the poverty rate stood at 19.2 percent and climbed to 31 percent among children under 18. That earlier Globe piece also described New Beginnings hosting a freshly cooked lunch four days a week at St. James Episcopal Church, and noted that city councilors had voted 4 to 3 against a resolution that would have paved the way for a city-run food hub on Social Street.
For now, Michon's focus remains on steadying her own family while continuing the work that has defined her for four decades. She has not asked for help, but neighbors, coworkers and former diners are offering it anyway, hoping to return even a fraction of what she has given a city that has long leaned on her kitchen.
