Monday, January 20, 2025
A turkey with all the trimmings figures so prominently in the Thanksgiving holiday that many families willingly squeeze their grocery budgets to afford it.
Joseph Floccari, manager of Green Acres Mall, understands the financial stress Thanksgiving can bring, particularly for households in need. To help, the mall distributed over 1,000 turkeys in its annual Thanksgiving giveaway.
“It’s important for us at Green Acres to be out there and doing our fair share of goodwill,” Floccari said. “When people are in need, this is a great time to give back to them. We’re looking to make hungry families and individuals happy.”
Packaged, frozen turkeys in large boxes were distributed to a number of civic associations, food pantries, and the offices of elected officials from Valley Stream to Long Beach in the lead-up to the holiday. Halal and kosher turkeys were also donated to ensure that “no one gets left out,” Floccari said.
He explained that the mall aimed to get these farm-raised poultry products into the hands of local groups and officials who have a keener sense of where the need is most urgent — and who can leverage their community influence and credibility to reach those who might otherwise be too humble to ask for help.
“People don’t necessarily want to stand out there and come asking for a turkey, so it’s easier for them to go to elected officials or civic associations,” Floccari said. “They can distribute it to the people directly without it being a big concern.”
Timing is everything when distributing frozen turkeys, he noted, a task community organizations can better streamline.
“They’re frozen — we can only keep them so long,” Floccari said. “We don’t have the means to put them in the freezer. We pick them up on the same day they’re distributed, and make sure the right amount of turkeys get picked up by each organization.
“It gets a little hectic, but, you know, it’s our time to donate back to the community,” he added.
This year, the average Thanksgiving feast for 10 people cost around $60, according to the 39th annual American Farm Bureau Federation survey — a 5 percent drop from last year, but still 19 percent higher than five years ago.
While Americans saw some relief at the checkout line, with grocery prices for this year’s feast dipping for the second consecutive year, local officials like Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, whose office distributed 100 turkeys, contend that significant need persists in the region.
“Facilitating these food drives underscores the importance of that ‘village mentality,’ that we’re all here in a community, and you don’t have to suffer alone,” Solages said. “There’s a lot of pressure when it comes to Thanksgiving. Everyone wants that Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving in the sense they want that turkey with all the sides, and so it puts financial pressure on families who already are stressed in these hard economic times.”
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