Culture & Community | Fair Haven | Food insecurity | Food Justice
Grayce Howe Photos.
The pick-up station was like a life size merry-go-round. As drivers pulled in, they checked in on the far left corner of the parking lot, swung over to pick up their assigned address routes, and made their final stop to acquire bags of fixings. After that, they were on their way to spread Thanksgiving joy around New Haven.
Last Saturday, the housing-centered nonprofit New Reach hosted its annual Thanksgiving Turkey Drive with FISH (Food In Service to the Homebound) of Greater New Haven, making this the ninth annual year FISH has hosted the drive. New Reach joined FISH for the first time in 2023 , making this the second year New Reach has run the event.
Over 100 volunteers came out to make the event, run out of 269 Peck St., possible. Eighty-one of those volunteers were drivers, in charge of delivering Thanksgiving fixings like turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing and collard greens to clients of FISH during the course of Saturday afternoon.
“What happens with this is it’s very contagious, people do it they love the feedback they love the response and then they come back,” said Jim Sonet, a longtime volunteer for FISH of Greater New Haven. “Very few people do this for just one year and then stop,”
Grayce Howe Photos.
Sonet said that for the entire time he has helped organize the drive— all nine years FISH has put it together—he’s worked with many of the same people, forming a small community in the process. He’s built new friendships.
Sonet explained that the event is made possible by connections and volunteers at the Elks Club, Carter Mario, SERVPRO, United Way, and youth in the community. For the past three years, for instance, a group of young people has come out from Trinity Church on the Green.
Sisters Mary Shaw and Anne Smith started volunteering at the Turkey Drive in 2021, when Shaw saw a flier for it on her church’s bulletin. Since then, it’s been a tradition that they look forward to experiencing together.
“The whole thing is so organized, and such a pleasure to work with Jim,” said Shaw. “And it’s always so positive to interact with the community when we drop things off.”
Shaw’s point is crucial to the event's annual success. After learning to sort out the logistics year after year, Sonet made it a point to assign each driving volunteer to a different time block, that way the parking lot would never risk an overflow. The drivers arrived in 15-minute blocks, the ease of the process adding to the appeal of giving back.
“This is the time of year you think about everybody and giving back,” Shaw added, “It’s what the holiday is all about.”
Grayce Howe Photos.
This year, FISH expected to deliver to over 1,250 households for clients who experience food insecurity, difficulties with accessing food, and mental health challenges that impact daily life. Eight hundred and 71 of those households received food Saturday, right from volunteers who had picked it up. That number has skyrocketed since FISH’s first turkey drive almost a decade ago, which delivered to roughly125 households total.
“It’s really great because people can cook their own turkey on Thanksgiving and cook their own meal,” said New Reach CEO Kellyann Day. Each household received some form of turkey or ham, cranberry sauce, produce, biscuits, and an item for dessert, making for about three bags per house.
Grayce Howe Photos.
The desire to make the holidays special for all ranged across ages, including 16-year-old Lawrence Gorham, who is a student at Notre Dame High School in West Haven. Although his mother did the driving, it was Gorham’s idea to volunteer.
Learning by example, Gorham grew up watching his mom be active in her community through volunteering, and working for the state of Connecticut at the Connecticut Mental Health Center.
The mother-son team delivered to five households, lending a helping hand to people who were immobile and needed assistance getting the deliveries into their house.
“Right now there’s a lot of people in need and you just have to be there for people,” said Gorham’s mom. “You have to show up for your neighbor.”