Regional Food Bank begins largest ever Thanksgiving meal distribution
LATHAM, N.Y. (NEWS10) - The Regional Food Bank is taking over the annual Thanksgiving Community Dinner, which was run by Equinox for 54 years. The food bank leadership and volunteers, restaurant and food partners, distribution site partners, donors, and local and state elected officials joined together Thursday to kick off preparations for distribution day taking place on November 23.
The Regional Food Bank is planning this year's Thanksgiving meal service program to be the area's largest, with the addition of dozens of pick-up and drop-off locations. Tom Nardacci, the CEO of the Regional Food Bank, said this year will serve an unprecedented amount of people.
“We are going to feed 30,000 people," Nardacci said. "We are going to provide about 150,000 meals. This will be the largest single food distribution in the history of the Capital Region, and we need to do it because the need this year is really high.”
Thanksgiving meals will be distributed across six counties in November, including Albany, Rensselaer, Schenectady, Saratoga, Columbia, and Greene. In addition to prepared meals, the Regional Food Bank will also be distributing Thanksgiving Day ingredients which will allow families to cook their own meal at home. Susan Lintner, the Executive Vice President, Equitable Access and Advocacy at the Regional Food Bank, said a 54-pound ingredient box filled with food items sourced from the programs local partners will be given out.
“At the food bank here, we wanted to make sure that our families that were serving have access to the food that they need on Thanksgiving," Linter said. "I know everyone wants the turkey, the stuffing, and the gravy and the potatoes, but we also want to recognize that food and security doesn’t stop on Thanksgiving, and the next day families are still going to be relying on the food we're providing.”
Ingredient Box Items:
- 1 whole turkey
- 1 five-pound bag of potatoes
- 2 cans of green beans
- 2 boxes of stuffing
- 1 can of cranberry sauce
- 2 jars of gravy
- 1 loaf of bread
- 1 pie
- 1 ½ gallon milk
- 8 cups of apple sauce
- 1 bag of fresh grapes
- 2 one-pound bags of walnuts
- 2 two-pound bags of almonds
- 2 bags of raisins
- 2 cans of salmon
- 1 can of carrots
- 1 bag of collards
- 1 bottle of grape juice
- 1 bag of fruit and nut mix
In total, 220,000 pounds of food will be loaded up on eight large tracker trailers and brought to the drop-off and pick-up locations. While 5,000 prepared meals will be stored by local partners before going out. Michael-Aaron Poindexter, the Chief Program Officer at the Regional Food Bank, said the relationship between partners is what makes the whole project possible.
“We want to ensure that the partners throughout our counties are going to get food to the neighbors that needed the most to continue to provide food during the holiday tradition, Poindexter said.”
For more information about the drop-off locations, or how to donate or volunteer, visit the Regional Food Bank's website.