ST. LOUIS — The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis gave away thousands of turkey dinners and 900 personal computers Tuesday.
It’s become an annual holiday tradition that helps meet the needs of the community.
At the Urban League headquarters on North Kingshighway, organization officials and volunteers loaded turkeys and boxes full of food into the cars of residents.
It was a well-orchestrated operation.
“We’ll give away a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of food, toiletries and PPE in five different locations," said Urban League President and CEO Michael McMillan, "along with some home deliveries to seniors and the disabled as part of our 24th annual Thanksgiving giveaway.”
Donald Mack was among thousands of people slowly driving through the distribution line.
“This means a lot to the community and the people in despair right about now,” said Mack, “so they can get a little joy and empathy.
Herman Williams was asked what this opportunity means to him.
“It means a lot to me,” he said, “because now I can have a Thanksgiving. Thank you so much.”
At the turkey giveaway’s East St. Louis location, in the parking lot of Draft Kings at Casino Queen, Urban League officials also gave away 900 personal computers, courtesy of PCs for People.
“PC’s for People came to this part of the state and we’ve been working to push technology into the homes of families who need it,” Urban League representative Kesha Chatman said.
McMillan said the pandemic increased the need in the community, but it still remains high.
“I think the need in this particular sense, of course, still remains for many Americans in terms of coming out of COVID,” he said. “But we are seeing less people come through the food pantries than we did at the height of COVID.”
In total, Urban League officials planned to give away nearly 5,000 turkey dinners.