Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional High School senior Sadie Burnham checks a pair of freshly made apple crumb pies as part of a donation to the Our Community Food Pantry in Southwick. Students from the Food and Nutrition class made more than 85 pies that were delivered to the pantry for distribution Tuesday. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
SOUTHWICK – More than 400 families in Southwick, Tolland, Granville and Westfield will enjoy a Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings this year thanks to the generosity of the community.
Southwick’s Our Community Food Pantry received meals – including turkeys and pies – for 135 families, and Westfield’s Our Community Table Food Pantry offered meals for 315 families. The turkey drive was spearheaded by the Southwick Community Episcopal Church and Rev. Taylor Albright who said last year they collected 200 turkeys for the Westfield pantry.
“Southwick’s pantry had a grant for turkeys last year, but they did not have it this year,” noted Albright.
The church community started a turkey drive several years ago and it has extended to friends and neighbors, and now the community at large.
“The Southwick Fire Department held a Fill The Truck turkey drive on Sunday and collected 50 turkeys and meals,” said Albright.
In addition, the 104th Fighter Wing made donations of turkeys, and Westfield High School students donated 25 turkeys plus $895 to purchase trimmings.
At Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional High School, Food and Nutrition teacher Allegra Petell and 80 students spent yesterday baking up a storm for Our Community Pantry’s Thanksgiving dinners. The students baked 85 apple crumb and chocolate pies, and teachers throughout the school donated an additional 50 pies in a variety of flavors.
This was the second year the school provided fresh baked pies to the pantry. Before the school baked for the pantry, there was a lack of dessert in the Thanksgiving meal offerings.
“How could you go without pie?” said Petell.
Petell wrote and received a grant from the Dickinson Trust for $500 and used the funds to purchase 125 containers of whipped cream to go along with the pies.
Student Sadie Burnham is a bit of a pie-making expert.
“I love to make pie!” she said. “I used to make pies with my grandma all the time.”
Burnham said it was great to extend her family’s pie baking tradition to her friends.
“Me, my mom, my grandma and my aunts always made apple pies together and I feel fortunate that I can make them with my family and now with my friends so that someone else can enjoy them,” said Burnham. “Pie is the best part of Thanksgiving!”
Petell said not only did students bake the pies, students in the Pathways Life Skills program helped make the pie boxes and other students created labels for the pies. Blossoming Acres donated the pie boxes, chocolate pie filling, and apples, and Moolicious Farm owner Joseph Deedy picked up the baked goods and delivered them to the pantry in his “pie truck.”
Petell said it was something missing in the Thanksgiving meals offered at the pantry that made a difference for families.
Albright said he was surprised at the number of turkeys needed this year.
“We found out that for many people, being able to provide Thanksgiving dinner could mean the difference between the meal or getting basketball shoes for a child or filling the tank up with gas,” he said.
Albright said the request for 400 turkeys was a bit daunting at first, but the church community tackled the challenge head on.
“It’s part of what we do,” he said. “It started as a church thing, but it’s growing.”
The church will next collect donations for Christmas meals and gifts for families in need.
Anyone in need of a Thanksgiving meal this year is welcome at Moolicious Farm’s second annual Thanksgiving For All. The Deedy and Magni families have teamed up with local businesses and families to provide a traditional Thanksgiving meal – including 15 turkeys and all the trimmings – to share with the community.
The meal service is first come, first served and is free to any individual or family in need of a meal and a place to feel at home on Thanksgiving. Moolicious is located at 258 Feeding Hills Road.
