A delivery of 160 frozen turkeys arrived at the Buffalo City Mission Tuesday. NOCO made the generous donation along with more than 1,800 packets of coffee. The City Mission is trying to collect 3,000 turkeys for next week's Thanksgiving Day Holiday and upcoming winter months.
Frozen turkeys were dropped into a large cardboard collection box outside the City Mission Tuesday. Helping to unload those turkeys was NOCO president Jim Newman. NOCO is celebrating its 80th anniversary. Newman said the company wanted to do something to give back to the local community.
"And we've worked with the City Mission in the past and we thought donating turkeys and donating coffee was another way of saying 'thank you' to Western New York for supporting us over the 80 years," said Newman. http://youtu.be/AODnztd-vZ4
But even with this latest delivery, City Mission executive director Stuart Harper said they still need another 600-turkeys.
"We use those turkeys for our meals that we deliver on Thanksgiving morning. We'll deliver over 5,000 meals through the help of about 250 volunteers on Thanksgiving morning. The turkeys are also given out to some local churches that distribute them out to their parishioners. Plus, we need to keep a little bit of a stockpile for going into the winter-season for us," said Harper.
Inside the City Mission dinning room -- it was bustling with activity as a number of community volunteers and some NOCO employees worked together to to serve a warm turkey meal to about 200-homeless men.
"Every day we come in, a lot of people don't have the money to buy a meal, so we get it for free -- it's a good thing," said James Watkins, one of Buffalo's many homeless. Watkins turned to the City Mission for help.
"My wife died. I had no place to go and my home, the home I stayed in was a part of a relatives home, so I have to move, I had to come here and stay here to get back on my feet," said Watkins.
The City Mission serves breakfast, lunch and dinner 365 days a year to the homeless and working poor seeking a meal and shelter. With the cold, winter weather upon us, the City Mission is now at 130 percent capacity at all its facilities. Watkins tells WBFO News without the City Mission's support -- he would be living on the streets.