Inflation drives high demand for help at Second Harvest’s Turkey Drive in Tri-Cities
Thanksgiving can be stressful, especially when budgets are tight and the cost of food keeps rising. This year, thousands of families have a little more to be thankful for.
More than 2,500 families in the Tri-Cities, Sunnyside and Yakima will have everything they need to celebrate Thanksgiving thanks to Second Harvest’s annual Turkey Drive.
The nonprofit hosted its third, and final, Turkey Drive of the week on Tuesday at the Benton County Fairgrounds in Kennewick, handing off the final 1,000 boxes of Thanksgiving meals. On Monday they gave away 700 boxes each in Yakima and Sunnyside.
The remaining 100 boxes were set aside to be delivered by Ben Franklin Transit to families who couldn’t get to the events, Second Harvest Philanthropy Manager Jean Tucker said.
“This is our 7th annual Turkey Drive distribution,” Tucker said. “It’s really just a community effort about coming together and serving families that would otherwise go without.”
Each box was filled with a turkey and all the fixings families will need for their Thanksgiving feasts. Tucker said they order the turkeys more than a year in advance and then spend months in the run up organizing and fundraising. Hundreds of volunteers got together on Sunday to put the boxes together, then hundreds more helped with the drive-through distribution events.
Tucker said the first cars began arriving before dawn, and hundreds were already in line two hours before the event was set to begin.
“There is a lot of demand right now, from September 2021 to September 2022, our partner agencies were reporting up to a 45% increase in demand, from people seeking out food assistance,” Tucker said. “That’s pretty significant, with a lot of folks asking for help for the first time. Inflation has had a real, measurable impact on our partner agencies.”
AgriNorthwest had more than two dozen volunteers on hand bright and early, helping to set up the event. AgriNorthwest Senior Area Manager Kyle Barclay said this was the fourth year he and his wife Peggy have helped work the event.
“It’s about the opportunity to serve the community,” Barclay said. “We really encourage our employees to get out there and help and be part of the community wherever they can, and this is just a great opportunity.”
“We recognize the need in the community, and recognize it’s going to take everyone doing their part. There’s no one person that’s going to fulfill all the needs.”
AgriNorthwest is also a major year-round donor of potatoes and onions.
Tucker said the drive was made possible thanks to volunteers and generous local donors like Lamb Weston, U-Pull-It Auto Parts and others.
Lamb Weston is the presenting sponsor of the event. U-Pull-It is the matching sponsor, pledging matching donations of up to $15,000.
Families needing assistance after the holiday can find drive-through events, food pantries and other resources by going to Second Harvest’s website, 2-harvest.org, and clicking on “Find Food.”
More information for those looking to donate or volunteer can also be found on their website. Second Harvest’s Hunger Solution Center is in Pasco at 5825 Burlington Loop.
This story was originally published November 22, 2022 at 12:56 PM.
