LOGAN – Thanksgiving is only days away and many families will be sitting down to a turkey dinner with friends, family and all the trimmings. Thanksgiving is a time for families to gather around a table and enjoy each other with a fresh cooked turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, the rest of the fixings and pie.
Matt Whitaker from the Cache Food Panty needs more turkeys for families wanting to enjoy Thanksgiving.
But there are families in Cache Valley and the surrounding areas that may not have the same opportunity. Matt Whitaker, the director of the Cache Community Food Pantry, is doing his best to ensure all families have a turkey for a Thanksgiving dinner.
He appreciates the generosity of the people in the area, but right now the pantry is falling short of the number of turkeys they need this year.
“We’ve had about 700 turkeys donated so far and we need about 1,100 turkeys to cover families for Thanksgiving,” he said. “We also need all the sides like potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberries and pies.”
November and December are the busiest times of the year for the local pantry.
“We’re happy to do the shopping if people want to donate to the pantry,” he said. “As soon as we get Thanksgiving out of the way we will start trying to get hams for Christmas.”
He is hoping the corporate donations will also help make up for the shortfall if he doesn’t get more donations.
The pantry serves about 25 other agencies, including eight different senior citizen centers that want turkeys and they also send some to Rich County.
Generally, when Cache Valley residents hear the pantry needs something the generous people around here step up and meet their needs.
Whitaker said Cache Valley people are amazing, they are generally pretty generous and step up to help them when he has needs.
Traditionally, Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for all the sacrifice and hard work done for the harvest. Today, more people take time off work and make it a four-day weekend starting Thursday and spend time with family and friends over a large feast held on Thanksgiving Day.
Donations can be taken at 359 South Main Street, Logan, or contact the pantry at (435) 753-7140 or email cachefoodpantry@gmail.com.