Can you help Connecticut Food Bank provide turkeys to needy families?

Stamford residents can make a donation November 16-19 at the Foodbank of Lower Fairfield County, 461 Glenbrook Road in Stamford, between the hours of 8am and 4pm.

With Thanksgiving approaching, the Connecticut Food Bank is asking donors to help them reach the finish line in meeting the need for turkeys and the trimmings that will help provide Thanksgiving For All.

“Thanksgiving is our national meal,” said Connecticut Food Bank CEO Bernie Beaudreau. “It should be a day when everyone has an opportunity to sit at the table and share in the bounty.”

Beaudreau said the Connecticut Food Bank has totaled the numbers from its network of nearly 700 programs that have requested food for Thanksgiving and hopes to meet the goal of providing 18,040 turkeys. We are 95 percent of the way there. “We need 884 turkeys to meet the need of families,” Beaudreau said. “If we could stretch and reach 1,000 additional turkeys, that would help to cover the possibility of changes in need.”

There are multiple opportunities to deliver frozen turkeys, nonperishable foods or financial donations to the Connecticut Food Bank before their major deliveries to food programs begin on Monday. Donations are accepted all week, between 8:00AM and 4:30PM, at the Food Bank’s Wallingford distribution center, at 2 Research Parkway. On Saturday, November 19, the Food Bank will be open from 9:00AM to Noon, accepting donations.

Beaudreau said that providing the other items to make a meal, like stuffing mix, canned potatoes, canned yams, canned vegetables and egg noodles, would help to round out the supplies on hand at the Food Bank, which will be supplemented by fresh produce supplied by larger donors, including area farms.

Another way to help the Connecticut Food Bank meet the need at Thanksgiving and beyond is with a financial donation, Beaudreau added. “We can turn a dollar into enough food to provide two meals. Financial donations give us the flexibility to put resources where we need them most quickly.”

Other food drives in the area are also available, Beaudreau said. “Thanks to support from local media partners and retailers, we have several sites around the region available for drop-offs of financial donations or food.”

In addition to the donation hours at the Connecticut Food Bank in Wallingford, the following drives are happening between November 17 and November 19:

For more information about the Connecticut Food Bank, it’s Thanksgiving For All initiative, as well as to volunteer or make a financial donation online, visit www.ctfoodbank.org.