Turkey giveaway fills the need and spirit of the holidays – Austin Daily Herald

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The first vehicles begin rolling up for the Hometown Turkey Takeover Saturday morning at the Mower County Fairgrounds. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

Kylan Tovar-Johnson moves turkeys to load them during the Hometown Turkey Takeover Saturday morning at the Mower County Fairgrounds. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

The Hometown Turkey Takeover gets underway Saturday morning at the Mower County Fairgrounds. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

Volunteers step up to distribute turkeys during the Hometown Turkey Takeover Saturday morning at the Mower County Fairgrounds. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

Turkeys sit out as volunteers wait to hand them over to people coming in to the Mower County Fairgrounds for the Hometown Turkey Takeover Saturday morning. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

A volunteer holds a turkey as vehicles pull up during the Hometown Turkey Takeover Saturday morning at the Mower County Fairgrounds. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

Sawyer Foster loads turkeys into a vehicle with help from Kelly Foster during the Hometown Turkey Takeover even Saturday morning at the Mower County Fairgrounds. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

Volunteers help guide people through the line during the Hometown Turkey Takeover at the Mower County Fairgrounds Saturday morning. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

The tone was set early on Saturday, before the Hometown Turkey Takeover even got underway.

As the volunteers gathered around Hormel Group Vice President Jeff Baker, the vehicles were already lined up around the perimeter of the Mower County Fairgrounds, queued up and waiting to collect their turkeys.

“Obviously, this is the time of giving right now and we are so proud to be partnered with the Hometown Food Security Project (HFSP). This is who we are. This is who Hormel is. We give back.”

Saturday’s event will have given away 3,500 Jennie-O turkeys to those driving through the fairgrounds by the time the event closed this afternoon. Another 1,500 turkeys are being distributed to county organizations in a unified effort to battle food insecurity.

Saturday’s event is one of the biggest that the HFSP and Hormel have been a part of, but certainly not the only one.

Still relatively young, this joint effort is already making headway against the challenge of food insecurity throughout Mower County.

“It’s our way of giving back to the community around the holiday season,” said Gema Alvarado Guerrero, wellness facilitator for the HFSP. “We are very committed to supporting the community and showing our presence and not just saying we’re here, but showing the community.”

“We’ve been planning this event for months and we’ve been seeing it on paper and seeing it in our meetings and imagining it, but to see it take fruition this morning is just breathtaking,” she added.

The vehicles made their way around the fairgrounds going south on 12th Street SW and then west on Eight Avenue SW to come in the south entrance with the main distribution taking place alongside the grandstands.

According to Baker, the cars began organizing early in the morning and required over 200 volunteers to make sure everything ran soothly.

Baker added that the amount of people showing up to help was just a part of what made the event so special.

“We put out a call to the community about two weeks ago and unbelievably the list of 250 volunteers filled up almost immediately,” Baker said. “This is a community that loves to give back. Give them a clear focus and clear vision of what this can be and they will show up.”

At the same time, he hopes the volunteers come away with an idea of how powerful this event can be in the days following the distribution.

“They are going to feel this in their heart at the end of the day and just know this is a big company in a small community that cares very, very deeply about the people who live here,” Baker said.

Among the volunteers was Captain John Woodard of the Austin Salvation Army.

Since the HFSP’s inception, the Salvation Army has been a partner and the work that partnership has done to date has been impactful in the overall effort to stamp out food insecurity.

“I think the level of volunteers and the community involvement — it’s incredible,” Woodard said. “You can tell this community helps a lot of these kinds of events. It’s a blessing to see this at this scale. This is something on a scale I haven’t seen.”

For Jim Snee, Hormel chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer, Saturday’s event is just another example of Hormel’s community engagement in helping meet the basic needs of Austin.

It’s also an example of the near instantaneous impact of the HFSP.

“Rather than so many different organizations trying to solve this on their own, how do we bring or convene them and really identify the needs and gaps and where can we step in to fill the gaps?” he said. “I’m really proud of our community today. To see so many community members out here, doing good work and being excited about it is a testament to the great community we live in.”