It is beginning to look like hundreds of struggling families in Manteca, Ripon, and Lathrop will go without a traditional turkey meal on Thanksgiving and may have to settle for food bank staples such as macaroni and cheese.
With 14 days to go until Thanksgiving, the Turkeys R Us effort has raised just $9,856. The effort needs $18,850 to meet the Thanksgiving demand alone due to higher turkey prices than last year. That means they are short of funds for 758 families. They had hoped to get a better price for turkeys but that didn’t happen.
Turkeys R Us actually has just eight days left to secure the funds as they must order the turkeys and have them delivered in time to be distributed to the three dozen food closets serving Manteca, Ripon, and Lathrop in time for Thanksgiving.
If they come up short it will be the first time since 1997 that it has happened.
There are 1,450 families in need in the three communities. Covering the main holiday course for Thanksgiving as well as Christmas requires at least $37,700.
The pressure on food closets is greater during the holidays as people who don’t normally turn to food banks for help do so. While a small segment are people on welfare, most are single mom households, households where one or two parents have been laid off or else had hours reduced, the elderly on severely restricted incomes, and those who have become gravely ill.
Turkeys R Us volunteer LeeAnn McNabb indicated that in order to make it easier for people to donate, they have set up a special phone number that connects people to the Second Harvest Food bank website. On there it will connect them to the Turkeys-R-Us page and allow them to donate through a PayPal account.
You simply text “turkey” to 209-213-1033 and that will allow access to the donation page.
A donation of $15 will provide a turkey for a family while $50 will provide an entire holiday meal for a family of four.
If you can assist Turkeys R Us, contact Coldwell Banker Crossroads at 823-8141. 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.
With 14 days to go until Thanksgiving, the Turkeys R Us effort has raised just $9,856. The effort needs $18,850 to meet the Thanksgiving demand alone due to higher turkey prices than last year. That means they are short of funds for 758 families. They had hoped to get a better price for turkeys but that didn’t happen.
Turkeys R Us actually has just eight days left to secure the funds as they must order the turkeys and have them delivered in time to be distributed to the three dozen food closets serving Manteca, Ripon, and Lathrop in time for Thanksgiving.
If they come up short it will be the first time since 1997 that it has happened.
There are 1,450 families in need in the three communities. Covering the main holiday course for Thanksgiving as well as Christmas requires at least $37,700.
The pressure on food closets is greater during the holidays as people who don’t normally turn to food banks for help do so. While a small segment are people on welfare, most are single mom households, households where one or two parents have been laid off or else had hours reduced, the elderly on severely restricted incomes, and those who have become gravely ill.
Turkeys R Us volunteer LeeAnn McNabb indicated that in order to make it easier for people to donate, they have set up a special phone number that connects people to the Second Harvest Food bank website. On there it will connect them to the Turkeys-R-Us page and allow them to donate through a PayPal account.
You simply text “turkey” to 209-213-1033 and that will allow access to the donation page.
A donation of $15 will provide a turkey for a family while $50 will provide an entire holiday meal for a family of four.
If you can assist Turkeys R Us, contact Coldwell Banker Crossroads at 823-8141. 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.
