Driving the Turkeys

It’s Saturday morning at the chaotic Loblaws on St. Clair West at Bathurst and I’m wearing a Santa hat, attempting to implore shoppers to buy a frozen turkey for Second Harvest’s annual Turkey Drive. I’d never people-watched this much before and I discovered that we all look stressed out while grocery shopping. Toddlers are hanging out of carts knocking displays over, couples are arguing over what to buy, and solo shoppers are dashing around talking on cell phones carrying out orders from someone at the other end of the line. I hold out a flyer hopefully, “Buy a turkey for Second Harvest?”

Second Harvest is a local charitable organization that provides the simple, but much needed, service of collecting surplus perishable food from grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, manufacturers, and events and delivering it to social service agencies in the city such as shelters, soup kitchens, and children’s breakfast programs. Founders Ina Andre and Joan Clayton began in 1985 by picking up excess food in their hatchback and driving it themselves to needy groups. Today, Second Harvest collects and delivers almost 6 million pounds of food per year to 250 agencies using a fleet of seven climate-controlled trucks.

Unlike a food bank, Second Harvest does not purchase any food. All distributed food is excess that would otherwise go to waste. A common misconception is that the perishable donations are leftovers or expired, but this is not the case. For example, all items rescued from a large event like the Good Food Festival, a consumer show, have not been plated or served. The donated goods go straight from the vendor’s refrigerated vehicle directly into a waiting Second Harvest truck.

A few weeks back, I volunteered to assist a Second Harvest driver on a Sunday pickup route that coincidentally winds through West Toronto, my general neighbourhood. We dropped off food at about nine different agencies, including several youth homes. It was great and humbling to see firsthand the people who benefit from Second Harvest and how much the donations help.

Before the Turkey Drive began in 2003, Second Harvest gratefully collected surplus turkeys that didn’t sell during the holiday season. However, agencies receiving the turkeys could only cook and serve them after the holidays were over. By holding the drive in early December, turkeys can be delivered in advance so that shelters and soup kitchens can join in the celebrations and enjoy a festive holiday dinner.

Normally, turkeys aren’t available for sale this early, but Loblaws brings them in especially for the Turkey Drive. In addition, they give Second Harvest $5 for every turkey donated. This year’s goal is to raise 5,000 turkeys over two weekends (Dec 6-7; Dec 13-14) at 10 Loblaws locations. In order to enable quick delivery, all 5,000 birds have already been allocated to agencies, so every single one is desperately needed and anxiously awaited.

I volunteered on the first day of this year’s drive along with 10 other lovely people, including several sweet kids who took one for the team and wore the turkey costumes. In addition to handing out flyers and soliciting customers, we assisted the cashier at a special till set up in the frozen food section so that customers could select and pay for a turkey and then easily hand it over to volunteers who would transport it to a Second Harvest truck. We also helped push turkey-laden grocery carts through the store and the maze of movators to load them onto the truck parked outside. Saturday morning Loblaws shoppers were frazzled and busy but kind, and we seemed to make a turkey run at least a few times per hour. By the time my 3-hour shift was over, we counted about 60.

And while we sold plenty of turkeys, at the end of the weekend only 1,834 birds were collected from all locations, so approximately 3,200 more are urgently needed. Second Harvest will be set up again this weekend at a number of Loblaw's stores throughout the city from 9am - 6pm (participating stores include locations at Leslie & Lakeshore, Moore & Bayview, Queens Quay Market – Lower Jarvis, Victoria Park & Gerrard, and Hoggs Hollow – Yonge & Yonge). Every turkey will go a long way to helping those in need have an enjoyable Christmas dinner.