On the morning of November 14, a truck will stop at the Grafton Food Pantry in Huntley and put the wheels in motion for hundreds of people who might otherwise not have a Thanksgiving. Forgive if you will the cliché because the wheels are key to the Grafton Food Pantry Thanksgiving Dinner giveaway, a two decades old tradition.
The truck driver will oversee the packing of 170 to 175 boxes of frozen turkeys into his truck at the Northern Illinois Food Bank. From there, the driver will deliver the turkeys and boxes of trimmings to Grafton Food Pantry where several dozen pantry volunteers will unload the boxes for the turkey giveaway.
A few hours later, another group of volunteers will await the arrival of Grafton Food Pantry clients in their vehicles. Harriet Ford, director of community outreach for the Grafton Food Pantry, knows that COVID-19 has made it necessary for people to remain in their vehicles for safety reasons. This will be a holiday drive-through procession.
“The clients each will present a letter they received from the Grafton Food Pantry making them eligible for the turkey dinner,” Ford said.
A volunteer will carry a turkey box and trimmings box to their trunk and present them with a gift card and a bonus bag of items.
“I would say the value of a turkey (feeds eight) and trimmings is probably $50 or $60,” Ford said. “Every dollar donated by the public, we’ll have about $8.00 of buying power at Northern Illinois Food Bank.”
The donations allow for buying Thanksgiving turkeys and trimmings and then in December, the donation dollars will allow for the purchase of Christmas hams for clients.
The Grafton Food Pantry is 100 percent donor based.
“The only time we actually go out to the community is for a $30 donation and you can provide a holiday dinner for Thanksgiving or Christmas to one of our client families. Everyone will receive the same provisions and if we have extra things, we’ll throw in a package of meat or throw in extra bread or vegetables,” Ford said.
For the Thanksgiving dinner giveaway, Grafton Food Pantry will need about 25 people volunteering their time. Signup has already begun. One of the volunteers is Hans Stucki, a retired litigation attorney. A Sun City resident, Stucki is now in his third year with the Grafton Food Pantry. He’s not yet sure whether he’ll be assigned to carry the turkey boxes to clients’ vehicles but he’s used to heavy loads.
“I spent the morning carrying banana boxes from the delivery truck. The biggest part of what I do is spend time carrying big heavy boxes, so turkeys don’t bother me,” Stucki said.
For those who’ve generously donated to Grafton Food Pantry, they don’t want the uncertainty and hardship of COVID-19 to take away from Thanksgiving. Just the constant struggle over COVID-19 has constantly contributed to the problems people face today and the way Grafton Food Pantry has adjusted. Ford recalls how they’ve operated the pantry in the past.
“People like to shop and we’re one of the pantries that allows free shopping where you can walk through and pick out your produce and tell the volunteer what you want and what you receive is based on your family size, except for the holidays, then everyone is getting the same thing,” Ford said.
Donations are left at the door where Grafton Food Pantry has a container for drop off. “Normally I tour many groups over the holidays especially, but we are not allowing any of that. We wash down the carts often, and use lots of sanitizer as cleanliness is a big part of running a food pantry,” Ford said.
All the volunteers wear a mask and gloves just like Stucki, one of the volunteers preparing for the Thanksgiving Dinner giveaway. He and the other volunteers are allowed in the building, but not the clients or donors.
“The thing that struck me about the pantry in particular besides the great mission of what they do and the people that we help feed every week is the spirit of the people that work here; they are really wonderful,” Stucki said.
Ford and the pantry board of directors are struck by the generosity of so many people and as an example they look at the third year for a food drive to benefit the Grafton Food Pantry. The drive-through food drive is the same day, November 14, as the Thanksgiving Dinner giveaway. The event is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the parking lot at Shepherd of the Prairie Lutheran Church on Main Street in Huntley.
