This project was joyous to participate in. Read about how Carter’s initiated their free Turkey Meal Giveaway after learning about the SNAP crisis. While people who signed up to receive these meals described this time period one of the roughest in their lives, this small moment of providing them with the foundation for a Thanksgiving Meal meant a lot. This video series covers the pre-planning that Carter’s owner and chef Jon Lombardi undertook for the distribution, the unboxing of what he hunted and gathered, and the bike delivery from the Beacon Bicycle Coalition.

Tuesday was Turkey Distribution Day at Carter’s Restaurant. On Monday, Katie met up with Chef Jon and his Carter’s Crew to unbox the food he purchased for this Thanksgiving Meal. In coordinating this, we learned so many things. Mainly, that many people cannot travel and live with disabilities. People had 2 and 3 jobs and were also caring for aging parents and children (adult children and young children) at home. They were tired. They could not get out, so the bike deliveries were crucial.

We also learned that feeding people is Jon’s love language, yes, but we learned that it’s also in his DNA that he help people by feeding them. Jon is a quiet but generous person. This is the largest project he and ALBB have worked on together. This was an incredible experience. Learning everyone’s stories. We are so glad to have reached you.

Thank you so much to those who donated at the end to help reach people.

In this video, Jon tells us how to cook a 22lb turkey (lots of butter), not to sneak the bird in during the pre-heat, and his genealogy of feeding those in need.

The Carter’s Thanksgiving Meal Distribution was so organically expansive. ALBB readers reached out to see how they could assist. One such reader, Kelly Holiday volunteered herself and the Beacon Bicycle Coalition to deliver meals by bike to those who needed them.

Delivery accounted for roughly half of our signups. People were either disabled, had newborns at home, worked more than one job, or just could not get out. While the forecast called for rain, ALBB had faith in the cyclists (Yvonne Caruthers, Meg, Mark and August) that they enjoyed the ingenuity of securing and protecting the meals from the elements. They offered car driving as backup should it begin pouring. But they made their deliveries before the rain came!

Special thanks also to car driver Sam Lashlee who made deliveries to Poughkeepsie and Beacon just over the I-84 bridge possible.