Estimates by some analysts say Thanksgiving dinners will cost more in 2021 due to a COVID and the supply chain issues.
LOGAN – Across the country families will gather for Thanksgiving and serve a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Thanksgiving is a time for families to gather around a table and enjoy loved ones with some freshly-cooked turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and the rest of the fixings.
For approximately 800 families in Cache County and the surrounding areas, they may not have a turkey dinner for Thanksgiving if the Cache Community Food Pantry doesn’t get more turkeys.
Matt Whitaker, the executive director of the Cache Community Food Pantry, has 29 turkeys in his freezer right now and the Thanksgiving holiday is just around the corner.
“I have a couple of businessmen – Dee Jones who retired from US Foods and Chris Wilson of Wilson Motors – who get together and donate turkeys to us for the past 20 years,” he said. “I just got a call, and they are going to donate 300 turkeys this year.”
The pantry could use some more turkeys for Thanksgiving and hams for Christmas, he said. Some are saying COVID-19 and the slow supply chain issues may have inflated cost of turkeys this year. Some families may not have the traditional turkey dinners and may opt for some something different.
Not only does the pantry need turkeys, but they also need the rest of the dinner.
“Some years we have potatoes and some years we don’t,” he said. “Right now, we could use anything for dinner, turkeys and all the trimmings, potatoes, dressing, vegetables and pies.”
Besides the families the pantry serves, they also send turkeys to other agencies.
“We have 25 other agencies we serve like Cache Employment (and Training), CAPSA, Common Ground, several churches,” Whitaker said. “We have eight different senior citizen centers that come to us for turkeys and we also send some to Rich County.”
Generally, when Cache Valley residents hear the pantry needs something the generous people of the valley step up and meet the needs of the pantry.
“People in Cache Valley are amazing,” he said. ”People are generally pretty generous and step up to fill our needs.”