The Corona Virus Pandemic has changed much of life as we knew it. And as the holiday season fast approaches, we can expect more changes. One of which is the annual Turkey Drop and Thanksgiving banquet hosted by Mel Trotter Ministries
“There’s no way to safely house and feed more than 2000 people in a banquet room.”
That’s Beth Fisher, VP of Communication and Advancement at Mel Trotter Ministries. She says they’ve had to cancel their large Thanksgiving Banquet held annually at DeVos Place downtown. That one event usually hosted more than two-thousand people, providing a hot Thanksgiving Day meal. But due to COVID, Mel Trotter had come up with another way to feed those in need.
“So, what that looks like now is that we’ve partnered with local food pantries to prepare, pre-packaged food boxes to distribute to all those who would have come to DeVos place for their meals. What’s interesting is while feed about 2000 on Thanksgiving at DeVos place, this reach is much further and the need is much greater, we’ve seen an incredible amount of people in need this year.”
Fisher says the numbers that have come back are already greater than in years past. The pandemic fueling the need. Fisher says the annual Turkey Drop will proceed as normal the week before thanksgiving at Celebration North and South Cinema locations on November 18th, 7am to 7 pm. You can drop off a frozen turkey or 15 dollars toward the purchase of one.
“All of the turkeys that we receive the week prior to Thanksgiving at Turkey Drop on Wednesday the 18th, will be used for both food boxes as well as to feed our guests and homeless population here at Mel Trotter.”
Mel Trotter says on average they feed 15-hundred to 2000 people on Thanksgiving, but with the new necessary changes, they may feed up to five to ten-thousand. For their homeless population Fisher says they will still provide about 600 meals at Mel Trotter with appropriate social distancing in place. Ministry officials say they use your help—you can donate to the Turkey Drop, buy a food box or become a Thanksgiving Day sponsor or find other ways to help out on their website, at Meltrotter.org.
