Organizations throughout San Benito County are busy collecting
food to make sure no one is without a turkey and other traditional
Thanksgiving fare this week.
Hollister – Organizations throughout San Benito County are busy collecting food to make sure no one is without a turkey and other traditional Thanksgiving fare this week.
For San Benito County families who cannot afford to buy a turkey and trimmings, Second Harvest and its member organization in Hollister, Community Pantry, are coming to their rescue.
Community Pantry workers hand out bags of food to the needy all year long, but during the holidays, they try to make sure the food has something extra.
“We try to make this bag a little bit more special,” Executive Director Mary Anne Hughes said. “But people are hungry all the time.”
Community Pantry will be handing out about 800 bags of food, most of which will include turkeys, Wednesday from 12:30pm to 4pm in Veteran’s Park in Hollister. Without the bags, many local families would not be able to afford a nice Thanksgiving dinner, Hughes said.
“This is important because so much family tradition revolves around this meal and this bird,” Hughes said.
Community Pantry already has about 400 turkeys, but is hoping for 150 more before Wednesday. If they run out, the organization will provide chickens to those in need, Hughes said.
The turkeys and more than 6,000 cans of food the organization will be handing out were donated by local community members and business. The food bags will be handed out to all, but Community Pantry members will be served first, Hughes said.
While the Community Pantry is handing out bags of food, volunteers will be preparing turkeys at Sacred Heart School for Marley Holte’s 18th annual Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday from 11:30am to 2pm in the O’Reilly Center behind the school. Holte and his helpers will be preparing a Thanksgiving feast for about 300 people this year, Holte said.
Holte heads Marley Holte’s Community Assistance Program and provides free dinners on Thanksgiving and Christmas. He started the Christmas dinners about 20 years ago when he and his wife decided to pool their money and feed the needy instead of buying gifts for each other, he said. Several years later they started doing Thanksgiving dinners as well.
Thanks to generous donations, Holte has already collected 24 turkeys, 20 cans of cranberry sauce and 75 pumpkin pies made by area Girl Scouts.
Mansmith’s Barbecue, based in San Juan Bautista, will smoke the 24 turkeys for about 5 hours, Mike Mansmith said.
“(The turkey) gets a light oak smoke flavor,” Mansmith said. “It not your everyday oven-baked turkey.”
In addition, Holte and his helpers will be serving dressing, corn, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls and coffee, Holte said.
“We’re inviting everyone and anyone,” he said. “It will be a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.”
Holte said attendance for his famous dinners has decreased in past years, but that the trend must mean more people have the family and funds for their own celebrations.
Preparations for a similar feast in San Juan Bautista are also underway, San Juan Mayor Dan Reed said. The 16th annual San Juan Mission Thanksgiving Dinner will be held at the Casa Maria Banquet Facility on the corner of First Street and San Jose from noon to 3pm.
“We’ll go ’til we run out of food,” Reed said.
Reed is expecting 275 guests and will be cooking 18 to 20 turkeys for the occasion.
“Everything is ready, we have all the food,” he said. “All we need is people to come and eat.”
Brett Rowland covers education for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected]
