DES MOINES, Iowa — Last year, we met a Thanksgiving angel — appropriately named Angie. She was busy cooking and serving 600 meals to Iowans who’d otherwise have none.

This year, Angie’s got her own space — a restaurant with a professional kitchen — and she’s even more driven.

“This is what we’ve been waiting for,” says Angie Ramos inside her restaurant, Hot Tamales on Fleur Drive.

She’s got a pile of potatoes, a sinkhole of stuffing, racks of roasting turkeys, and a pair of helpful kids happy to spend their day off with Mom.

“She keeps moving and I just try to keep up,” says son, Chente.

“She’s the boss,” adds daughter, Jessica, “so whatever she needs done, we will do it, no questions asked.”

If hearing that kind of talk out of teens isn’t impressive enough, consider this: none of this food was donated, and a grateful smile will be the only payment accepted.

“You can see it in their eyes,” Jessica says of the people she’ll serve, “they’re so thankful.”

“The faces!” Angie smiles. “They’re happy faces, unbelievable, ‘am I actually getting this for free?’”

Of course they are — it’s what this family has been all about ever since that year at Chuck’s Restaurant on Thanksgiving, when they were on the other side.

“We went there — first because I needed a meal, my kids and I,” Ramos remembers. “And it was overwhelming, the gratitude. Some guy gave me money just for gas, or something like that, and we were like blown away. And we did a little bit better the next year and ever since we went over there to volunteer our time.”

So as Chuck’s feeds the north side with its traditional fare, Angie will feed the south with her Mexican, Peruvian flare.

And it’ll be hard to say who’s most thankful.

“It’s something that satisfies us,” Angie smiles. “Kind of completes us.”

“I’m thankful that my mom works so hard where we can do something like this, you know?” Chente says.

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