Large need for food and money donations to give families Thanksgiving meals
Nov 14, 2024, 5:41 PM | Updated: 6:38 pm
SALT LAKE CITY — Just two weeks before Thanksgiving, there’s a dire need for food in Utah. Local pantries and the Utah Food Bank are pleading for donations so they can provide Thanksgiving meals to struggling Utah families.
Local pantry shelves may be stocked, but with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming, they won’t stay that way.
“A lot of families with children, people that are working that have jobs are struggling,” Pastor Shawn Clay, Salt Lake City Mission executive director, said.
Clay runs the Salt Lake City Mission, and right now he’s short about the half food he needs to provide 500 boxes of free Thanksgiving meals to families without enough money for food, and the homeless he’ll feed for the holiday.
“(We’re) reaching out for donations of hams, turkeys, canned cranberries, vegetables, pumpkin pies,” Clay said.
That need for donations is statewide.
“Currently there are about 413,000 people in Utah who are food insecure, meaning they don’t know where their next meal is coming from. One in six of those are children,” Ginette Bott, Utah Food Bank president and CEO, said
Bott said families can’t keep up with rising costs.
“Families are trying to balance a budget that isn’t stretching as far as it needs to go,” Bott said.
To meet that increased demand, the Food Bank and pantries need more donations. Without them, some Utah families may not have a meal this Thanksgiving to be thankful for.
“People rely and are dependent on these Thanksgiving meals,” Clay told KSL TV.
If you want to help, there are two things you need to know. The Salt Lake City Mission plans to give away those Thanksgiving box meals on November 22nd at 11 a.m. at their location on 1151 S. Redwood Rd. in Salt Lake City.
So, if you want to donate, make sure to get your donations to them before then. Or if you’d like to donate instead to the Utah Food Bank, which does provide food to pantries like the Salt Lake City Mission, every dollar you give ends up being $7.60 they can spend on food.
