Charitable agencies find turkeys in short supply

By Cydney Cappello

Friday, Nov. 21, 2008 | 2 a.m.

With Thanksgiving Day just a week away, representatives from about a dozen agencies around the Las Vegas Valley lined up Thursday outside a North Las Vegas food bank to receive frozen turkeys and other holiday food items.

Three Square Food Bank, 4190 N. Pecos Road, provides both fresh and non-perishable food items to more than 200 nonprofit agencies and faith-based groups in the Las Vegas area, and while they provide agencies with food on a daily basis, the frozen turkeys are special for the holiday season.

“We asked our agencies how many turkeys they needed for the families they serve directly. They came in at a little over 10,000 turkeys,” Three Square chief operating officer John Livingston said. “We purchased 3,000 and through some other donations, we have about 3,400 turkeys to give away. We’re short of what we need.”

Because of the shortage, Livingston said the 133 agencies that ordered turkeys would only receive about 30 percent of what they requested, but excluding turkeys, those agencies were mostly getting what they asked for.

Livingston was in charge of the forklift distributing the frozen turkeys, but he wasn’t the only one at work Thursday.

For Three Square employee Angela Proby, this was just another day on the job stocking shelves with bread and crackers awaiting the rush of agencies huddled around the warehouse garage doors.

“The guys prepare the orders and I just pull the orders for the agencies to take,” she said.

Just before the doors opened at 8 a.m., agency representatives could already be seen pressing their faces against the windows for a first peek, and according to Harry Jackson of First African Methodist Episcopal Church, they have good reason.

“We number about 90 families at times, and families from two to three per family to six to eight per family,” he said.

He didn't leave with any turkeys, adding that he'll wait until Monday because the church doesn't have enough storage space. Jackson said every Thursday his church picks up food from Three Square, then hands it back out the same day.

“We needed 150 or more and they cut us down to 44 because they didn’t get their supply,” he said. “Some families are going to miss out, unless we substitute them with chicken -- if we can get those.”

Jackson said families that will receive turkeys already have signed up for them at the church and will be issued them when they’re available.

To donate to the Three Square Food Bank, visit its Web site at threesquare.org or go to any Smith’s Food and Drug store checkout register to donate $7 for a bag of food or $10 for a turkey.