Mike Mallory’s cupboard isn’t exactly bare but if you’re looking for a Thanksgiving feast complete with turkey, cranberry sauce, potatoes, rolls, and pumpkin pie you may be out of luck if you’re among 2,800 struggling families in Manteca, Lathrop, and Ripon.The Second Harvest Food Bank that Mallory oversees has received an enormous shipment of cereal. That’s good news since as quick as the food comes in these days it immediately goes out to food closets serving the Northern San Joaquin Valley and the Gold Country. That stockpile of cereal may be needed to replace turkeys in Thanksgiving baskets going out to an estimated 2,800 families from church-based food closets in Manteca, Ripon, and Lathrop.Donations of turkeys and funds to the Turkeys R Us drive is the slowest it has been since the effort was started 13 years ago to make sure no one in Manteca, Ripon, or Lathrop went without on the day of thanks.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.
Thanksgiving 2011: Cereal or turkey?