By Sean Copeland

BLOOMINGTON – Home Sweet Home Ministries is partnering with Midwest Food Bank in order to acquire 2,000 turkeys this holiday season, as part of their give thanks campaign.

The campaign is an effort to make sure that no families in the Bloomington-Normal area are left without a Thanksgiving dinner.

Home Sweet Home Communication Coordinator Leslie Bunge said last year over 11,000 people were served from the donations and food received through various stores and organizations within the community. But even when it’s all prepared, Bunge said its still a lot of work.

“Yes, it’s a huge endeavor,” Bunge said. “When we say give thanks, people know that we’ve already got most of our volunteers planned for it. We’ve got people even calling into the shelter to start thinking about, because that’s just the distribution part. We have a lot going on at Home Sweet Home Ministries too on Thanksgiving day so we’ve already got caqlls from people who want a home delivered meal on Thanksgiving day as well.”

The pre-packaged meals, which can be purchased at Hy-Vee and both Schnucks locations, for under $30. The food will be picked up by Home Sweet Home Ministries and distributed the week before Thanksgiving to families throughout the Bloomington-Normal Community.

“And then we just do a pick up, and that works out great because we’re giving it away as a frozen turkey and all the fixings. So that way we do that about a week before Thanksgiving when we do our distribution and that way families can have a nice warm meal on Thanksgiving Day,” said Bunge.

Food and monetary donations are accepted by delivery to either organization or by website, HSHministries.org or Midwestfoodbank.com.

Information about how to volunteer is also on those websites.

Sean Copeland can be reached at [email protected].