A $500 donation from the Manteca/Almond Grove Assembly International Order of Rainbow for Girls has helped Turkeys R Us surpass 1,000 turkeys for Thanksgiving.

The youth group’s $500 donation means 33 struggling families in Manteca, Ripon, and Lathrop will have a traditional turkey meal this Thanksgiving that they wouldn’t otherwise have.

As of Tuesday, Turkeys R Us had accepted 370 turkey donations plus another $9,757 in cash. Given the average turkey is expected to cost $15 each or 99 cents a pound, that is enough to deliver 1,020 turkeys.

Turkeys R Us is an effort to make sure that 2,800 struggling families in the three communities can have a Thanksgiving meal. Second Harvest Food Bank Executive Director Mike Mallory has noted that turkeys at Thanksgiving is the largest source of protein many families have this time of year as other sources become scarce in terms of food bank donations.

The Turkeys T Us effort is also trying to secure the fixings for the turkey dinner that includes cranberry sauce, bread, vegetables, stuffing, potatoes, and such.

There is a surge at Thanksgiving as families that don’t usually request help with food turn to food closets because they simply can’t afford the traditional meal for their families. Many are the working poor barely making ends meet, single mothers, those dealing with a disability, low-income seniors on fixed incomes or unemployed. Turkey R Us also supplies turkeys to community meals such as the one the Manteca Sunrise Kiwanis is conducting on Thanksgiving at Mountain Mike’s Pizza.

Mallory has noted it is ironic that in the San Joaquin Valley - the most fertile agricultural land in the world - that an estimated one out of every six people has hunger issues.

Turkeys R Us is working against a Nov. 18 deadline to order the turkeys to secure them in time for Thanksgiving to distribute to the 30 food closets serving Manteca, Ripon, and Lathrop. Typically, a number of actual donate turkeys will come in after that allowing the effort to meet all of the needs.

If you can assist Turkeys R Us, contact Coldwell Banker Crossroads (North and North Main Street in Manteca) at 823-8141. You can also call LeAnn McNabb at 815-6754, Sue Teunissen at 483-3365, or the second Harvest Food Bank at 239-2091.

If you have an actual turkey you’d like to donate, you can take it directly to the Second Harvest Food bank on Industrial Park Drive near the branch post office and indicate it is for Turkeys R Us. The drop-off can be done Monday through Friday before 4:30 p.m.