Connecticut Foodshare Is Providing 50,000 Thanksgiving Meals To Alleviate Rising Food Insecurity

by Viktoria Sundqvist CTNewsJunkie

WALLINGFORD, CT – Three thousand frozen Thanksgiving turkeys arrived Tuesday morning at Connecticut Foodshare, boxed up on pallets inside a massive truck. Crews were ready, quickly moving each pallet off the truck with forklifts into the warehouse, eventually steering them toward a massive floor-to-ceiling freezer room.

The Hometown Foundation turkey donation – the largest donation of the year – is part of the Thanksgiving for All campaign, hosted by CT Foodshare in partnership with Bank of America, which provides 50,000 holiday meals for Connecticut families. The campaign kicked off Tuesday – dubbed “Turkey Tuesday” – and runs until Thanksgiving. 

Connecticut Foodshare President and CEO Jason Jakubowski shows off some of the 3,000 turkeys donated by Hometown Foundation on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. Credit: Viktoria Sundqvist / CTNewsJunkie

“It’s an intense couple of weeks,” said Jason Jakubowski, president and CEO of Connecticut Foodshare, as he was showing visitors around the warehouse Tuesday. 

CT Foodshare serves 600 local food pantries across Connecticut’s 169 towns. Each donated turkey, along with fixings like carrots, potatoes, and onions, will be picked up on staggered schedules through next week by local pantries, who then distribute the meals to their local customers. 

The Foodshare freezer can hold about 10,000-15,000 turkeys at a time, Jakubowski said, so it’s important to distribute donations as quickly as possible to make room for more. So far this year, large donations have come in from Stop & Shop (2,000 turkeys) and LAZ Parking (160 turkeys), but each donation from individuals also makes a difference, staff said. Monetary donations can also be made online at ctfoodshare.org/boa.

Food can be donated at various upcoming events, including one outside West Hartford Town Hall on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., or dropped off at CT Foodshare’s main location at 2 Research Parkway in Wallingford.  

“Connecticut is blessed to have the foodshare, and we are blessed to have them in Wallingford,” Mayor Vincent Cervoni said.

In addition to supplying the state’s food pantries, CT Foodshare also offers a Mobile Pantry Program, which distributes food at 113 sites in nearly 70 towns. A recent survey among food pantry participants shows the need is high, and that fresh produce in particular is in high demand.

“The hardest thing is being able to give out enough food,” Jakubowski said. 

Food insecurity is 23% higher than last year, mainly from the high cost of groceries and the cost and lack of available housing, he said. To meet demand from local food pantries, as many as 64,000 Thanksgiving meals are needed.

“It’s sad that we are providing 50,000 meals, and it’s still not enough,” Jakubowski said.

Connecticut Foodshare President and CEO Jason Jakubowski, right, speaks with Joseph Gianni, president of Bank of America Greater Hartford on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024.  Credit: Viktoria Sundqvist / CTNewsJunkie

The Mobile Food Pantry survey showed that about 62% of people visit the truck every time it comes to their community, and that about half the participants live in households that include seniors. About a quarter of participants are working more than 20 hours a week, and about 40% live in households that include children.

Joseph Gianni, president of Bank of America Greater Hartford, said demand has actually increased post-COVID, yet all federal funding offered during the pandemic has stopped, putting organizations like CT Foodshare in a difficult position.

“Our costs have escalated,” he said. “We need to raise even more money.”

Bank of America had 20 volunteers on site Tuesday, helping sort produce and fill boxes going out to the community.

“We all want to do our part to make the community a better place,” said Jill Hutensky, senior vice president at Bank of America. 

A team volunteers monthly at the food share, Hutensky said. In addition to it being a great team-building experience, the volunteers feel what they are doing is something tangible, she said, since “everybody can relate to not having food.”

Jakubowski said large companies regularly send groups of volunteers, but anyone from the community can sign up on the CT Foodshare website to come in for a shift, whether it’s helping in the warehouse or at a local food pantry.

Roger Magee of LAZ Parking said he has been participating in “Turkey Tuesday” for the past 10 years, but that his company has been doing it for 20 years. This is the 25th year of the Thanksgiving for All campaign. 

“We are happy to be part of it,” he said. “It’s our favorite thing to do each year.”

Bloomfield-based Foodshare merged with the Connecticut Food Bank in January 2021 to become Connecticut Foodshare.

As another holiday fundraiser for the food bank, CT Foodshare also partnered with Avery’s Beverages to sell “Turkey Tonic,” a special flavor of seltzer that tastes like cranberry, orange, and ginger. Gianni said he and Jakubowski invented the flavor about four years ago and reached out to Avery. Now, 50 cents for every bottle sold is donated to CT Foodshare. It is only available during the holidays.