The 5th annual turkey dinner event in support of the Angus Food Bank got underway this morning with some packing and delivery help from volunteers and a few members of Canadian Armed Forces Base (CFB) Borden.
The helpers gathered at Bokkie’s Biltong, a South African butcher shop on Saunders Road in Barrie on Friday, where they assembled 150 boxes of holiday meals, which included a frozen turkey, supplied by the shop, stuffing and all the usual Christmas dinner fixings that go along with it.
The loads of donations were then transported to the CFB Borden, where they continued to stuff the boxes to complete the full Christmas dinners.
“It's trying to give back and help out with our community in difficult times,” organizer Wayne Hay told BarrieToday as the event got underway.
As with previous years, members of the Canadian Forces School of Aerospace Technology and Engineering, of which Hay is the honourary colonel, assisted in the event.
“Sometimes (people) are in need of assistance during the holidays, and if we can do something like this to help them through the holidays with a full Christmas dinner, then we can do that,” he added.
Moore Packaging in Barrie supplied the cardboard boxes for each meal, as they do every year.
There are also 150 gift cards added to the boxes, donated by another local community supporter, the McDonald's restaurant in Angus.
This year's event was also sponsored by Hayco Commercial Group, MacNeil Construction and Seven Elements Wealth.
