Tom’s Drive collects more than 1,000 turkeys in Colfax

Colfax High School students stand outside of Rosauers Friday afternoon promoting the Tom’s Turkey Drive.

This time last week, Paige Collins, executive director at Council on Aging & Human Services, was worried about having enough food to feed local families for Thanksgiving. Her worries were put to rest with a successful Tom’s Turkey Drive at Rosauers Friday and Saturday.

“By the end of the official Tom’s Turkey Drive, we had 521 bags,” said Collins.

Those 521 bags were matched by Second Harvest to bring the total bags donated to the Colfax Pantry to 1,042. However, that was only at the official end.

“Somehow they just kept selling them on Sunday,” said Collins. “It was a good accident.”

By the end of business Sunday, more than 545 bags in total had been bought, bringing the total to nearly 1,100 donated turkey bags, which include a turkey with potatoes, yams, milk, butter, stuffing, cranberry sauce and croutons. Collins previously told the Gazette that one bag can feed at minimum five people, and she expects to be able to feed more than 1,000 families for Thanksgiving.

“I am thrilled to pieces,” she said. “I did not want anyone going hungry.”

Collins said that more than 10,000 pounds of food was donated to the food pantry by Second Harvest, which meant they had about 20,000 pounds to distribute Tuesday and to other pantries across Whitman County. She said this was a record amount of poundage for the Colfax pantry.

Collins added that some of the turkeys will be saved to be distributed for Christmas.

“We should be able to do another turkey distribution for Christmas,” she said. “We could end up with a few hundred turkeys left over.”

Last year, more than 100 turkeys were left over at the end of distribution, but the pantry had enough to feed 850 families last year and has far more this year.

Collins also wanted to thank those who purchased turkeys. She said that many people did not need reminders this year to purchase them, but rather went to Rosauers ready to purchase the bags.

“Colfax really takes care of themselves,” said Collins. “People were walking in solely to buy the bags.”