Culture
Anatomy of a Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway
What it takes to deliver 10,000 birds to needy families.
The Friday before Thanksgiving, Kelly Reid pulls up to the Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger at 8:09 a.m., two minutes ahead of schedule. He quickly scans his manifest, pinned to a clipboard, to see what he’ll need to unload. Then he pulls on some heavy-duty work gloves, drops out of the cab of his 18-foot truck, and starts unpacking 20 cases of frozen turkeys.
The food pantry’s not open yet, but Lorraine Thompson is already waiting in a line that stretches past the building. Everyone in line is shuffling in place to stay warm. Thompson pulls a borrowed velour coat around her shoulders. Since she stopped smoking, she says, everything feels too tight.