Serving up a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings for more than 9,000 people requires tons of turkey — literally.
Price Chopper on Friday, Nov. 9, loaded up the second half of a massive turkey donation to the annual Equinox Thanksgiving Day Community Dinner. Around five-and-a-half tons, or 20,000 pounds, of turkey have been sent from Price Chopper’s Frozen Food Distribution Center, located in the Rotterdam Industrial Park, to prepare dinners for around 9,5000 people throughout the Capital District.
Approximately 500 people are expected to attend the organization’s sit-down dinner at the First Presbyterian Church in Albany, with the remaining meals delivered to people within a 40-radius of Albany. The group served 9,350 generously portioned meals last year.
“We are prepared for more need this year,” said Lea Bosquez, director of Development and Community Relations for Equinox.
Last year the organization planned to feed 9,000, but saw the need increase beyond projections. Enough meals were made for everyone, but this year it will be ready to serve more dinners.
More than 3,500 volunteers turn out to help cook, serve and deliver the bounty of meals. The planning starts over the summer and the kitchen is fired up the Sunday before Thanksgiving.
“I think the thing that is just so remarkable every year is that we have so many people in the community that come out and make it a part of their family tradition,” Bosquez said. “More and more people are hearing about it and wanting to become involved in it.”
Mona Golub, spokeswoman for Price Chopper, said the company has been involved in the dinner for decades and has donated different foods over the years. Golub said the company sees the value of the dinner and of Equinox in general.
“It helps to provide a nourishing, traditional holiday meal for many neighbors and friends in our community who otherwise wouldn’t be able to enjoy that,” Golub said. “Donating all of the turkeys Equinox needs to produce this Thanksgiving community dinner means that they don’t have to spend extra time soliciting turkey and can focus on their everyday mission.”
Golub said the company believes strongly in Equinox’s programming, such as supporting disenfranchised children and the victims of domestic violence. The group hopes to stretch Thanksgiving generosity out beyond the holiday itself, too.
This will be the second year for Project Soup, which is a partnership between Equinox and Price Chopper to provide soup kitchens and food pantries with the leftover turkey and ham bones. Price Chopper then donates vegetables and other ingredients to make the soups and stews.
“All of the roasted turkeys, that just makes really good soups and sauces and gravies,” Bosquez said.
Before Project Soup, which was a recommendation from Price Chopper, all of the bones and byproducts were recycled into biofuel, Bosquez said.
Anyone interested in volunteering or making a donation can call the Equinox Thanksgiving Dinner Hotline at 434-0131 from Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“We can use help in so many different ways,” Bosquez said. “It’s really sort of a magical thing that it all comes together.”