Manteca Transit is rolling out the bus for three days in a bid to help the community deliver Thanksgiving for neighbors who are faced with the prospect of eating macaroni and cheese instead of turkey next week.
MV Transportation is teaming with Manteca Transit, Food-4-Less and Second Harvest Food Bank for the 17th annual Stuff the Bus Friday through Saturday from 10 am.  to 4 p.m. each day in the Food-4-Less parking lot at 131 Spreckels Avenue.
It is part of a last-minute push to secure 607 turkeys needed to provide Thanksgiving meals to 1,600 struggling families in Manteca, Ripon, and Lathrop. Turkeys with traditional fixings will go to all households dependent on 30 food closets in the three cities if the community is able to provide enough donations.
Other turkey and food drives are:
uSaturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Safeway on South Main Street where the Manteca Firefighters Association will try to fill a fire truck with turkeys and food.
uSunday at the Hoyt Lane playing fields where Northgate Little League will be collecting turkeys and other items.
Turkeys as well as non-perishable foods will be accepted. In addition to frozen turkeys the Stuff the Bus location will also accept frozen ham, chicken and other frozen meat products.
All three collection donation sites will accept cash donations for Turkeys R Us. A $20 donation buys one turkey.
More details on the Stuff the Bus effort and items that they are looking for can be found at the City of Manteca’s website at www.ci.manteca.ca.us/Manteca/Transit/ or by contacting Georgia Lantsberger at the City of Manteca at 456.8875.
The community has donated $19,893 so far towards the $32,000 needed to make sure struggling families in Manteca, Lathrop, and Ripon may have a traditional Thanksgiving this year through the Turkeys R Us effort.
 On Wednesday, there was $19,350 collected including large checks from Ripon Rotary and PL Fry & Son. Jessica Vaughn of the Turkeys R Us effort noted a fair number of the smaller donations Wednesday came from families that said in the past they benefitted from the community’s generosity at Thanksgiving and Christmas and now wanted to return the favor since they have gotten back on their feet financially.
With 7 days left to Thanksgiving, the 17th annual Turkeys R Us Drive has enough to purchase 993 turkeys.. The effort needs either 607 more turkeys or more than $12,000 in cash to purchase just turkeys for Thanksgiving . Another 1,600 turkeys are needed for Christmas.
Turkeys R Us volunteer community coordinator LeAnn McNabb will pick up checks if she is contacted at her cell at 815-6754.
If you can assist Turkeys R Us, contact the Second Harvest Food Bank at 239-2091.
Second Harvest will accept frozen turkeys or hams from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at the 704 E. Industrial Park Drive location in Manteca.
Donations can also be dropped off at Crossroads Real Estate at 250 Cherry Lane, Suite 105, in Manteca.