Councilmen Donald Abbott is holding a Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner Fundraiser for over 100 local families who need it most this year.
The Turkey Dinner Drive collected donations for the kits being delivered to families today, and the Grocery Outlet Bargain Market are the ones providing all of the food.
Last year the event helped about 13 families, and this year it has grown larger than expected.
In total they've raised $7,670 for the Turkey Dinner Kits from last year to now, and the Grocery Outlet is donating $250 while also providing food for the event.
Dean Biggs, the Owner & Operator of the Grocery Outlet Bargain Market explains what exactly is in the meal kits "We got the turkey, potatoes, the sweet potatoes, the cranberry sauce, green beans, corn, some sparkling cider, pumpkin pie, whipped cream, margarine and brown sugar."
All being hand delivered in a ready to go package for local families in need.
Although some grocery stores may be seeing some stock shortages, the Grocery Outlet hasn't been, and they're using their produce to give back to the community.
Christina Moore, one of the volunteers at the Turkey Dinner Fundraiser says "It's great that they're not taking advantage of the shortages that other grocery stores are having with turkey and giving them back to people who need them."
Officials at the store say when they heard there might be a possibility of a shortage, they stocked up to make sure they had enough to put on the shelves.
Biggs explains "We started stocking up when we started hearing about this, but Grocery Outlet corporation has done a great job at procuring the product and making sure we got it."
It's not just the store that's stocking up early, Biggs says he's seen people this year buying holiday groceries as early as late October to early November.
Biggs adds "We've seen customers stocking up a little earlier for sure."
The Grocery Outlet also donated BBQ food that was being grilled all day for the volunteers who were packing and delivering Turkey Dinner Kits today.
Moore tells us as she was making food for other volunteers "We're down here passing out food, chips, snacks, drinks the whole 9 yards."
The volunteers at the event take multiple dinner kits at a time, after packing them and using their own cars to deliver them to the destinations, coming back to the store and repeating the process until every kit is hand delivered.
Moore tells us "One thing a lot of us forget about is maybe these families who are in need of these meals don't have the means to also go pick them up."
They say this program is a full service, someone shops for you, picks it up, drops it off and you can be worry free.
Moore adds "You don't know what's going on with the neighbor next to you, they're in positions they've never found themselves in before reaching out for help isn't the easiest thing."
