The Regional Food Bank and its partners announced the largest Thanksgiving Meal Distribution event in the Capital Region at a press conference on October 20th.
Food Bank employees, non-profit organizations, and volunteers stood outside the Regional Food Bank in Latham to announce preparations for their Thanksgiving Distribution event in the Regional Food Bank’s 23-county service area.
“Pope Francis said, you pray for people who are hungry, then you feed them. That's how prayer works, right? We're not going to pray and hope someone does it. We're going to do it,” said Tom Nardacci, the CEO of Regional Food Bank at the press conference. “That's the point. That's what we're here to do today.”
Nardacci added that the organization was building off of the momentum from last year’s meal distribution event.
“This year, we're building on that success and expanding the efforts in our whole 23 counties. So, here's the plan for this year, 21 community distribution sites. Last year we had six,” explained the CEO. “We're going to go from 150,000 meals to 350,000 meals. We're going to expand from 30,000 people served to 75,000 people served.”
Meal distribution in the Capital Region is part of this larger effort; distributing 231,000 Thanksgiving meals to 50,000 people in counties like Albany, Rensselaer, Schenectady, Otsego, and much more. On Thanksgiving Day, regional food bank staff and volunteers will hand out Thanksgiving Day ingredients that will help families cook their own meal at home.
Dominick Purnomo, a restaurateur in Downtown Albany, and his team is handling cooking an additional 6,500 meals for home bound seniors. He commented that volunteering for this event is about much more than food.
“I think that's the biggest thing that we're doing, is we're not just distributing food and sustenance,” said Purnomo. “It's really about sharing hope and kindness in a time of year that, you know, we should be celebrating joy, and not everybody has that opportunity.”
Toward the end of the press conference, New York Senator Jacob Ashby commended the team at the Regional Food bank for undertaking the operation, applauding them for their hard work.
“That's a logistical effort that I don't think too many people can wrap their heads around,” said Ashby. “But it's because of the dedication, and it's because of that drive to want to feed those who will be hungry, but I know that Tom and this team here, community officials, regular people from around the state of New York are not going to give up on that.”
