Turkeys are in short supply for area food pantries

Thanksgiving dinners will cost more in 2023 due to inflation.

LOGAN – Area food pantries are hoping people will be generous and bring in turkeys, hams and all the trimmings for Thanksgiving meals for families going through a rough patch.

Matt Whitaker Executive Director of Cache Food Pantry said food insecurity is still on the minds of some valley families.

With inflation at a 40 year high and the cost of groceries going up a growing number of families and other charities are depending on community food panties to help with a holiday meal.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is telling people to expect higher prices for Thanksgiving turkeys this year. The average price for a frozen, Grade A, 8- to 16-pound whole turkey reached a record price in September of $1.72 per pound. In 2021, this same size of bird cost about $1.44 per pound.

The price of fresh, boneless, skinless turkey breasts have reached a record price of $6.70 per pound, a 112% increase in price. In 2021 the same turkey breast cost around $315 a pound.

Cache Food Pantry, Garden City Food Pantry, Box Elder Food Pantry and the Preston Area Food Pantry all expressed concerns about their turkey shortage and the other foods that go with a Thanksgiving meals.

Matt Whitaker the executive director of the Cache Food Pantry knows the people he serves and right now they are short about 200 turkeys for Thanksgiving.

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 and 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.”

The list of families the organization helps is growing.

We are gaining clients that could use help with Thanksgiving dinners; some are families and some are organizations,” he said. “People can also donate money by going to cachepantry.com and click on venmo@cache-pantry, pay with a credit card or Paypal.”

Joleen Groberg executive director for the Box Elder Community Food Pantry said they need more turkeys.

Box Elder Community Pantry Executive Director Joleen Groberg said they need about 500 turkeys for Thanksgiving for their families this year.

“We could use turkeys and hams for the holidays, we serve up 500 families this time of year the holidays,” she said. “The pantry is using all our storage to meet the needs of our clients and we don’t know if we are going to have meat for Christmas dinners for our families.”

The Box Elder Food Pantry is holding a Turkey Drive this Saturday the Nov.19, from 9 a.m. until 10:30 a.m.

The turkey drive is just something we do special every year to get turkeys,” she said. “It is usually successful, but with turkeys being so expensive this year we are not sure what to expect.”

The Perry Wards of the Church of Christ of Latter-day Saints are holding their annual turkey drives to help the effort.

Groberg is hoping to get at least 150 turkey from the drive this year.

“We will take any kind of donations and it can be dropped off during our regular business hours,” she said. “We try and do something special every year to to help families for Thanksgiving. We worried about the current economic situation and the rise in price of food.”

Rhonda Menlove shoes how they stock the Garden City Food Pantry.

She said someone started a rumor the Box Elder Food Pantry was closed.

“We want people to know we are not closed; we are open for business,” Gorberg said.

There is a small need in the Garden City Food pantry said Executive Director Rhonda Menlove.

“We have had some generous food donations this year,” she said. “We do have some needs for small households.”

She said Mikes Market has really been a blessing this year.

“We also get help from the Utah Food Bank, Cache Food Pantry and people just giving donations has really helped us this year, Menlove said.

Steve Aust the Executive Director of the Preston Pantry said they serves about 150 families.

Steve Aust of the Preston Area Food Pantry said Lundahl Building is supplying Thanksgiving baskets for most of the people who could use help this year.

“However, the pantry could use some more turkeys for Thanksgiving and hams for Christmas,” Aust said. “Some families may not be able to have the traditional turkey dinners and may opt for some something different.”

Hopefully when people hear the food pantries need help the generous people of the area will step up and meet the needs of the less fortunate families they serve.

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