Things will appear different during this year’s Community Services of Venango County’s Friends for Food distribution, which provides traditional Thanksgiving Day food to families and individuals in need.
Although the campaign, now in its 30th year, is in full swing, many details about how it will operate are still being worked out because of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Mary Jeanne Gavin, Community Services executive director and Friends for Food coordinator.
“Our goal has always been to put quality food on the table so families can sit down and eat Thanksgiving dinner together, and we are still going to do that. It will just look totally different for this year,” Gavin said.
Typically, Gavin said, there are about 500 people inside the fire hall, including more than 300 volunteers, during distribution day.
Volunteers are congregated about 10 to a station as they pass out food items.
COVID-19 restrictions, Gavin said, won’t allow that process to happen this year. This year, the plan is to distribute vouchers for food, instead of the food itself.
“Many volunteers package the food beforehand. We can’t have a large group of people standing close together packing the food,” Gavin said.
At this point, the intention is to hold a drive-up distribution, according to Gavin, and the plan is still to give out turkeys if organizers can find stores to fill orders.
Gavin said the price of turkeys has gone up, as has the price of food in general.
On top of that, she said it is difficult to secure large quantities of food items this year due to supply chain disruptions.
The tentative plan is to have different stations set up in the fire hall parking lot to accommodate several lines of cars, Gavin said.
At one station, people will be required to register before proceeding to the next station, where they will receive a turkey, and then to the last station, where they will receive a voucher, Gavin said. Volunteers will work in shifts outside, giving out turkeys and vouchers.
Gavin said plans are being made in case of bad weather. They include having some tents set up outside for the volunteers.
As always, Gavin said, Community Services relies on volunteers to make the distribution a success. However, there will be a need to limit the number of volunteers to 100.
In all, Friends for Food gave out nearly 1,400 turkeys last year. Gavin expects a similar number this year.
“With the pandemic there have been more programs available to feed people, such as the expanded meal programs in the schools, saving money for families. I don’t anticipate more people this year,” Gavin said.
One turkey will be given out per household. Vouchers also will be distributed by household.
