Cars were already lined up as the sun came up at San Joaquin County Fairgrounds as volunteers Thanksgiving Food Giveaway.
Some individuals’ days get started much earlier. Spokesperson for the Emergency Food Bank of Stockton/San Joaquin, Alesha B. Pichler, says she was saddened to see the amount of cars waiting to receive a Thanksgiving meal when she arrived at the fairgrounds around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday,
According to Pichler, the first person to arrive at the fairgrounds came around 4:30 p.m. Monday afternoon, nearly 16 hours before the food giveaway commenced.
“I was heartbroken because the need is great,” Pichler said. “We try to tell people not to arrive early and that everyone will receive a meal but people come anyway.”
Volunteers passed out 2,801 Thanksgiving meals in cold temperatures and rain as hundreds of cars snaked through the streets and into the parking lot of the fairgrounds to receive a meal.
Pichler says they gave out so many turkeys at this event that it has depleted their stock of frozen fouls ahead of their Christmas giveaway. Another call for donations will need to be made ahead of the giveaway Pichler says.
Donning neon yellow hazard vests and rain ponchos, groups of volunteers with flags directed cars to prepared stations along the grandstand to load turkeys and boxes of food into their vehicles.
Recipients of the food giveaway left the fairgrounds with a box filled with mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, macaroni and cheese, vegetables, a whole turkey and in some cases a can of pumpkin, according to Pichler.
Volunteer morale was visibly high, with some prepared stations dancing to the rhythm of the music playing from portable speakers to lighten the mood. Stockton District 3 City Councilmember Michael Blower played a mixture of 80s music from the entryway of the grandstand as he drew stars on the tires of vehicles to mark who received food.
According to Pichler, around 50 volunteers helped out over the course of the day to make the annual tradition a reality. Pichler says that yearly food giveaways are a humbling experience for volunteers.
“It makes a person grateful for what they have. And now this year,” Pichler said. “I just thought of it the other day when I sit down for my Thanksgiving meal with my family. I know that we, as an organization, helped thousands of people do the same thing.”
Echoing similar sentiments was Anne Swehla Garcia, a Stockton kindergarten teacher, who helps organize additional fundraising efforts for the Thanksgiving meal giveaway. Swehla Garcia says as a teacher, she sees a need for help fighting against food insecurity especially during the holidays.
“But just you see those people coming in that have such a great need that say you’re so lucky, or you have someone tell you when I was a kid, we never had a turkey,” Anne Swehla said.”… I know the needs there, and it’s something that we can do. It’s a concrete thing we can do. And so that’s why I keep going.”
Swehla Garcia and her grassroots effort, Friends and Strangers, raised over $8,400 using the money to purchase 488 turkeys for the Emergency Food Bank this year. According to Swehla Garcia, the fundraiser, which has been going on for eight years, started as an effort to simply ask people for money to purchase turkeys for the food bank.
Since then, people from across the country have been donating money to her for this yearly fundraiser, and one person as far away as Ireland is giving money. Swehla Garcia says most people donating tend to be San Joaquin County residents or those who have moved on to other parts of the country but still feel the need to give back.
“The gal from Maryland, used to be the librarian for the San Joaquin County Libraries, and she was also a librarian at my school and then the person in Colorado used to work at EOP with me,” Swehla Garcia said. “So there’s all sorts of different connections. The person from Nevada grew up in Stockton, yeah, so, and then they move away, and they still share
Swehla Garcia says that despite raising nearly $8,500, her second most successful fundraiser to date, she is still purchasing the same amount of turkeys due to inflation, which she says doesn’t surprise her. Globally the price per pound of poultry has gone up by $0.57 since Swehla Garcia began back in 2017.
Swehla Garcia says that being able to feed folks is what matters at the end of the day.
“People always wonder, how many pounds of Turkeys is that? And for a long time, I just counted the turkeys, because to me, every Turkey is a family or a unit of people,” Swehla Garcia.