Neighbor To Neighbor Distributes Hundreds of Thanksgiving Turkeys to the Community

On Tuesday, Neighbor to Neighbor distributed hundreds of turkeys and fixings for a family Thanksgiving. “We gave out 205 turkeys as of 1:30pm,” said Nancy Coughlin during the daylong give away. Kings Markets provided 300 turkeys and the Connecticut Food Bank provided another 100.

In addition, Acme provided turkeys from customers who earned them through the store’s loyalty program, but didn’t need them.

For the third year Berkshire Hathaway provided 300 bags of fixings including vegetables, cranberry sauce and stuffing.

Volunteers this year included members of the Rotary and Neighbor to Neighbor’s board. Karen Royce, president of the board, said the clients are very appreciative of the turkey give away. “An older women was praising God for a while this morning when she got her turkey,” Royce said. “Thanksgiving is a great American tradition. Whether you cook it yourself or go to someone’s house, you want to be the same as everyone else.”

Guy Pettiford, Pam Speer, Anne Pfetsch, and Nancy Coughlin with a client who was happy to receive a turkey from Neighbor to Neighbor on Nov 14, 2017 Photo: Leslie Yager

Fortunately, on Tuesday it was neither raining, nor too cold to hold the event in the parking lot, because there wasn’t enough freezer space in the cramped Neighbor to Neighbor space in the basement of Christ Church for all the frozen turkeys.

The food pantry clients come once a week on various days, but the turkey give away was one day only, on Tuesday.

This marks the fifth year of Neighbor to Neighbor’s turkey distribution. “Our clients who have been coming here a while know about it and we share the information so others learn about it,” Coughlin said.