by Lisa Reisman
Giveback volunteers: lower row, Denia Williams, Reese McLeod, Krista Gibbs, Shay Taylor, Sherelle Allen, Jeremiah Ogden, Top row, Nuke Rankins, Kristen Threatt, Kevin, Angel Hubbard, Summer R. Bisson-McCotter, and Daniel Smith.
At around 10:20 a.m., a call sounded up and down Sylvan Avenue—and across social media.
“Get your turkey, your stuffing, cornbread, collard greens, gravy, cranberry sauce, butter rolls, mac and cheese, pull up, come get it,” Daniel Smith, standing before a video camera on the sidewalk fronting Seven Haven, announced.
The occasion was the Thanksgiving Giveback, co-organized by the Gorilla Lemonade team and the Elm City Freddy Fixer Parade Committee last Wednesday. The mission, according to Freddy Fixer Committee President Reese McLeod: “To show our thankfulness by feeding those in need and giving back to the community that built us.”
Sixty-five families registered for the food donation. In all, the two nonprofits fed 70 families, McLeod reported after the event.
“The idea is to get the word out,” said Gorilla Lemonade co-founder Kristen Threatt, observing the action alongside Smith. “Too many people in our community are having to choose between rent and groceries.” That’s backed up by recent studies showing a sharp rise in food insecurity in New Haven from 14 percent to 27 percent due to deep cuts in federal funding and increasing numbers of people needing food but not qualifying for programs.
“Do you have everything you need?” McLeod asked a woman, peering into her bag, in the chill late-November air. A turkey and box of stuffing peeked over the top.
“Bless you,” the woman said.
Along the table, Krista Gibbs was handing out cans of green beans. On her way to the giveaway, she stopped at a supermarket to buy ten turkeys and 30 mac and cheese boxes.
“This is my community,” said Gibbs, a member of the Freddy Fixer Parade committee. “We take care of each other.”
Nuke Rankins, another Freddy Fixer Parade Committee member, agreed; he had come with three large boxes of butter rolls.
“Community comes first, especially at this time of year,” he said, before greeting a woman and a small child.
All the fixins.
“Everyone’s getting two of each of everything,” McLeod was calling out. “Except cranberry sauce. We have limited.”
Just then, Hill Alder Angel Hubbard, appeared. “Collaboration is what it’s all about,” she said, as Kevin, the owner of Seven Haven, nodded. “These organizations show up, period, they see our community, the deep needs we have, and they try to address them, and it’s not always on the news. It’s an honor to partner with them.”
Beside her was Shay Taylor. A New Haven native and fourth-year medical student at Howard University, she’s been doing a clinical rotation at Yale New Haven Hospital. She said she posted a request on social media on opportunities to serve the community, and heard back from Threatt and McLeod. “I’m helping to organize,” she said. “This is everything.”
“He’s not on the list?” McLeod was saying. “That’s okay. Stay right there. We’re going to take care of you, okay? We’re going to give you a bag full of everything you need.”
Ready to start cooking…