By RACHEL BRANT
Staff writer
Family and friends will gather together Thanksgiving Day to eat tantalizing turkey, scrumptious stuffing and palatable pumpkin pie.
And the Central Kitsap Food Bank plans to give less fortunate families the tools to create their own delicious Thanksgiving Day feasts.
The CK Food Bank is collecting goods to create Thanksgiving baskets. CK Food Bank Executive Director Hoyt Burrows said the food bank will serve 275-300 households this year.
“That’s up a little bit from last year,” Burrows said. “We’ve had a steady increase throughout the year so far.”
The CK Food Bank is looking for the basic holiday fare to create delicious baskets of goodies. The food bank needs frozen turkeys, stuffing mix, instant potatoes, gravies, yams, canned vegetables, pie crusts and fillings, cranberry sauce and condiments to create mouthwatering holiday meals for needy families, but Burrows said cash donations are always greatly appreciated.
“Of course we’re always looking for cash because then we can select what we need,” Burrows said.
The Olympic Business Exchange, a chapter of Business Network International, also is collecting food to benefit the CK Food Bank. This is the first year Olympic Business Exchange has hosted a Thanksgiving food drive.
“We really want to get out in the community,” said Janel De Los Reyes, events coordinator for Olympic Business Exchange. “We’re earning great money so we just wanted to give something back and we thought this would be a good way to do that.”
Those interested in supporting the Olympic Business Exchange Thanksgiving food drive may deliver their food donations to Edward Jones on Silverdale Way, Quality Heating & Air Conditioning on Silverdale Way and Wagner Family Chiropractic Center on Lowell Street in Old Town Silverdale.
Olympic Business Exchange also has secured a discounted price on turkeys to be donated to the food bank. Donations of $10 per turkey may be made directly to an Olympic Business Exchange member and checks can be addressed to the Olympic Business Exchange.
“So far we’ve actually got 100 turkeys, so we have a little over a thousand pounds of turkey,” De Los Reyes said.
The CK Food Bank also is searching for volunteers to help sort and distribute goods at their Anderson Hill Road location. Burrows said the food bank usually has a good number of volunteers during the holidays, but the more volunteers, the better.
“It’s always better to have too many than not enough,” Burrows said. “We’ll set them up and we’ll fit them in somewhere.”
Burrows said collection boxes are set up at various businesses including American Marine Bank, Kitsap Credit Union, Pacific Northwest Title and Curves in Silverdale.
“Some of them (collection boxes) will be up through Christmas time,” Burrows said.
He said the CK Food Bank will be looking for the same types of foods to distribute at Christmas time.
Beyond Mortgage will be collecting canned goods for the CK Food Bank at the Silverdale Christmas tree lighting ceremony Saturday, Nov. 24.
“The food bank really does appreciate the community support,” Burrows said.
Operation Christmas Child collection
Silverdale United Methodist Church
Wednesday, Nov. 14 – Friday,
Nov. 16, 3-6 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 17, 12-5 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 18, 2-4 p.m.
St. Charles Church in Poulsbo
Monday, Nov. 19, 2-6 p.m.
