Thanksgiving Dinners, Donations Delivered by Local Groups
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Some 115 dinners were picked up or delivered in the days before Christmas through the city's Veterans Services Office and police, and Gabriel Abbott Memorial School in the town of Florida raised funds for the local food pantry.
On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, an assembly line was set up in the Armory basement to pack bags of sides to go with 20-pound turkeys. Police cruisers drove in to pick the dinners and deliver them to local residents.
Christopher Bonnivier, a chef, has been supplying Thanksgiving feasts to families in need for a dozen years. Last year, he teamed up with the North Adams Police Department to provide more turkey dinners and to share the effort.
"Our real estate company, we're big into giving back to the community. Mary Ann [King] reached out to me about another thing. So I talked to her about this," he said, then added laughing "because my wife was like, can we stop delivering this stuff?"
Driving around the city and walking up 20 steps was getting to be a bit much. And they'd been doing around 20 to 25 families. Last year, with the police pitching in, three dozen meals were delivered — this year, it was 60.
Each bag held yams, pies, cookies, vegetables, ingredients for a green bean casserole, marshmallows, gravy, stuffing, and cranberry sauce.
Bonnivier calculated they were feeding 720 people as each meal package could feed a dozen.
King and her husband, Leon, Chief Mark Bailey, Lt. Anthony Beverly and Mayor Jennifer Macksey helped pack the bags. King broke up the list to provide the easiest way for the officers to deliver and Officer Taylor Kline coordinated the deliveries.
Bonnivier and King said the effort also had the bonus of "positivity" for the police force. "This is a good thing," he said.
At City Hall on Wednesday morning, Veterans Agent Kurtis Durocher was overseeing a drive-through dinner pickup for veterans and surviving spouses.
"An organization called Veterans Inc. reached out to us about four weeks ago, said that they had done this in years past," he said. "We put out the feelers, and I gave Tina the list to call, and so we reached out to as many people as we could, and we got 55 that said they wanted it."
Veterans Inc. is 35-year-old nonprofit agency headquartered in Massachusetts that says it has helped more than 100,000 New England veterans with housing, medical care, training and employment and other needs.
Durocher and his wife had traveled to Worcester on Tuesday to pick up the meals, ranging in size for meals for two to one family of eight.
"I appreciate it. Yeah, it's very hard on when you're on Social Security and I do get food stamps, but still, you know, they don't go far," said Dolores Stojda. "It scared us when they took them away for awhile. This is very helpful and I'm sure the other families appreciate it as well."
At the American Legion on Tuesday night, the 20th Oh Be Thankful Dessert & Pie Auction raised close to $1,600 for the Al Nelson Friendship Center Food Pantry and the No Paws Left Behind Shelter.
The bidding for desserts has become part of Abbott School's Project 351 community service, with students in Grade 8 coordinating. The desserts ranged from chocolate pie to pumpkin fudge to caramel apple trifle.
Each item was doubled — one for sampling by bidders and judges, and one to bid on and bring home.
Bidding was quick as nearly two dozen desserts were auctioned by teachers Chris Howard and Timothy Rougeau. Not surprisingly, the top-selling item was a dessert by the school's retired principal, Heid Dugal.
Her cream puffs went for $75, but not too far behind was a Grade 4's blue-ribbon winning Mississippi mud pie for $50 and an apple pie and Eli's peanut butter pie each went for $45.
The auction also featured raffles with the goods donated by area businesses.
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