Feeding 100 families on Thanksgiving is no small feat, but Greektown Pizza Restaurant is hopeful they can pull it off for the second year in a row.
Greektown’s first food drive five years ago fed just under 20 families for the holiday, but they’ve been able to give more each year. Last year, they fed 100 families.
But that in no way makes this year an easy task for Greektown Pizza owners Tom and Cathy Klein and neighbors Hannah and Audra Popejoy.
“It’s just kept growing and growing because we wanted to see how far we could push ourselves to get as many families fed, and 100 is a lot of families to feed this Thanksgiving season,” said Hannah.
“At Greektown, we see the community who are fortunate enough to come and help our business thrive, but we wanted to give back to the community, the people who might not have extra money, especially around the holidays,” she explained. “We don’t want anyone to go hungry.”
In addition to classic Thanksgiving dinner favorites like turkey, sweet potatoes, and apple sauce, Greektown is also looking for other foods like mac and cheese and taco kits, as well as hygiene items like toothpaste and deodorant.
Cathy said that the food drive started September, and donations were slow at first, but “once everyone gets through Halloween, everything starts coming in.” When LebTown spoke with the group Oct. 26, they had just received a large donation.
They typically buy whole turkeys for each family soon before the food is given out, so money donations are appreciated as well as food and hygiene items.
“We do take monetary donations because the turkeys are a huge expense, and we don’t necessarily have room to store all 100 turkeys so we typically have to purchase them a day before or the day of,” explained Hannah.
Monetary donations also go toward other last-minute filling in the donation gaps.
They plan to distribute donated items the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, which requires a marathon of packing, planning, and distribution.
Cathy said that they work closely with volunteers from the Calvary Chapel of Lebanon to find families who need the help. Church volunteers and U-Turn for Christ members then personally deliver the boxes.
“We’re exhausted by the time this is done, thank God we have Ginger (with the Calvary Chapel) to find the families so we know they’re going to people that need them, and then U-Turn for Christ and volunteers from their church,” said Cathy, emphasizing that the drive is a community effort.
Donations can be brought to the restaurant at 544 Walnut St., Lebanon, until the Friday before Thanksgiving.
Greektown also regularly posts updates to what items are still needed for the drive to its Facebook page.
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