Volunteers sought for Tom's Turkey drive

The annual Tom’s Turkey drive will return to the Colfax Rosauers in two weeks. The Council on Aging, in partnership with Second Harvest, is hosting the drive ahead of food pantry distribution dates to collect food for the Thanksgiving holiday.

“Our goal is to feed everybody we can,” said Paige Collins, executive director at Council on Aging. “We’re looking for a total of 900 turkeys.”

That number would cover all the people served at Whitman County’s 11 pantries. Collins said the pantries traditionally serve about 890 individuals/families.

The Tom’s Turkey drive will give people the opportunity to purchase a turkey bag for $20 to donate to the pantry. Each bag includes one packet of turkey gravy, two cans of vegetables, one can of yams and one can of cranberry sauce. Overall, each family will come away with the bag plus a half gallon of milk from Darigold, Franz dinner rolls and croutons, Imperial margarine spread, five pounds of potatoes and a 12-pound Jennie-O Turkey.

“It’s $20 a bag, and that buys a whole meal,” said Collins.

Second Harvest is fronting the Colfax pantry 300 of the meals, to be delivered Nov. 17, and anything purchased beyond the initial 300 will be picked up at Second Harvest in Spokane the following week.

“Rosauers will give them a number sold, and Second Harvest will send the stuff from there,” said Collins.

Collins is seeking volunteers to help with the Saturday shift at Rosauers to remind people to purchase the bags.

“There’ll be a couple of people who sit inside the front doors at a table,” said Collins. She added that some people will also be near the checkout stands to haul the bags to the Council on Aging truck in the parking lot once they are purchased.

“They’ll be running back and forth,” she said.

There will also be someone dressed as a turkey outside of the store.

“One of those boys always puts on the costume,” said Collins, noting there will be several volunteers from Colfax High School for the Friday shifts.

Volunteers will be at Rosauers from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. for the drive in two to three hour shifts. Collins is seeking volunteers for the entire day.

In addition to seeking volunteers for the drive, Collins is also seeking volunteers on Monday, Nov. 21, to help unload the truck and get everything ready for the distribution the next day. The meals will be able to be stored in the newly-acquired refrigerator truck over the weekend this year.

“Any able-bodied volunteers we can get on Monday would be awesome,” said Collins.

She said they could also use volunteers for the distribution in Colfax, slated for Tuesday, Nov. 22, from 2-6:30 p.m.

The meals will also be distributed at all other Whitman County pantries at regular distribution times, Collins said. For Rosalia, where the food pantry is closed indefinitely while the town looks for a new site and operator, patrons can come to the Colfax distribution. Collins said everyone in Rosalia who regularly utilizes the pantry will be able to get a meal.

“We’ll be able to get the bags to them,” she said.

Last year, more than 1,000 bags were collected during the two-day drive. That made it so there were enough left over to give out ahead of Christmas as well.

“We had about 100 turkeys left over for Christmas,” said Collins. She said she would love to have enough to have leftovers again to be able to continue to provide meals for the holidays.

She said she is excited for this year’s drive.

“We’re looking forward to it,” she said. “I can’t wait to see the kids out there with their turkey hats. With any luck, the weather will hold.”

To volunteer, contact the Council on Aging at 509-397-4305.