NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Three dozen local families will be feasting this Thanksgiving thanks to a local chef with some help from the Police Department.

 

Chris Bonnivier said he and his wife, Linda, have been providing 20 to 25 residents in tough financial circumstance with the ingredients for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals for a dozen years — doing the shopping, packing and delivery. 

 

"We got to the point, we have grandchildren now," he said. "We want to help. We're doing this by the grace of God, I'm a true believer, that we've been blessed and we're doing this on our own with his help." 

 

But the effort had become wearing ... until a few more hands volunteered to help. 

 

On Tuesday, Police Chief Mark Bailey and others gathered at 23 Eagle St. to pack bags with turkey and all the fixings. 

 

It started with a call to MaryAnn King, a dispatcher, about the annual public safety toy drive. Members of the Police and Fire Departments and Northern Berkshire EMS do a toy drive at Walmart then wrap and deliver hundreds of presents.

 

King's been leading that effort for years and last year provided to toys to nearly 200 children. She'd contacted Bonnivier about matching some funds for a pallet of toys; Bonnivier responded by donating the total cost of the pallet and asking for helping hands in return. 

 

Bonnivier had first thought having a fire truck and cruiser and handing out the bags. He was dissuaded of that idea because would cause a line and they wouldn't know if they were helping the people who needed it. 

 

Instead, he was put in touch with Det. Stephanie Mirante, the school resource officer, who had her own list of 15 or 20 families. If they delivered, he'd cover the cost of the meals.

 

"We're all here to base it off the kids in our community, at school," said Mirante. "Who we feel at school could use this ... some [families] have four or five kids. So this is nice."

 

Bonnivier put out a call on Facebook asking families in need to contact him as "we want to again give back to our neighbors as we love our community so much."

 

"I called every individual person, got their story understood kind of what's going on in their life and said, 'Alright, let's do this," he said. 

 

Thirty-six bags were packed with one turkey, canned gravy and cranberry sauce, 5 pounds of potatoes, a stick of butter, a bag each of fresh carrots and green beans, a pie, cookies and rolls. 

 

Then Bailey, Mirante, Officer Taylor Kline and Lt. Anthony Beverly set off to deliver meals, as well as a volunteer from Pittsfield. 

 

Bonnivier wants to team up again for Christmas and give meals along with the public safety's toy distribution.