AIM, United Way Seek Cooperative Efforts for Thanksgiving Food Distribution

Greg Wilson, The Anderson Observer

Thanksgiving generosity presents a logistical problem of the most American sort: there can be too much food in one place and not enough in another.

Last year, Anderson County’s turkey distributions sometimes unfolded as competing acts of kindness as churches, nonprofits and other charitable organizations gave away holiday food on the same days and at the same hours only to witness some families in need drove from one site to another collecting multiple food supplies, leaving others without.

Sarah Ann Skelton of AIM recalled one woman who had mapped out the holiday circuit with impressive efficiency.

“The first person in line last year for Thanksgiving told me specifically: ‘I’ve got it all planned out. I’m going to get six turkeys today,’” Skelton said.

The ambition is understandable. A turkey is expensive. A Thanksgiving meal can become a financial burden long before the pie arrives. But Skelton and other local nonprofit leaders began asking whether the county’s charitable resources could be shared more evenly and with greater accountability.

AIM and United Way of Anderson County are now having conversations intended to create a coordinated, communitywide Thanksgiving distribution at the Anderson Civic Center during Thanksgiving week. The idea is to replace scattered distributions with a single, larger effort involving nonprofits, churches, civic groups and volunteers.

The likely dates are Monday, Nov. 23, or Tuesday, Nov. 24, depending on coordination with Duke Energy and United Way. AIM has traditionally held its distribution during one of those two days.

The goal is not to eliminate local generosity. It is to organize it.

“Why do a bunch of things kind of halfway when we can all do it really well together?” Skelton said.

The Thanksgiving distribution at the Civic Center, would be a joint effort, creating a co-branded event capable of serving more families and making sure the available food reaches people more equitably.

Last year, AIM distributed 1,000 turkeys. Skelton said a coordinated event could grow beyond that number if community organizations choose to combine their resources.

“We could make this bigger. We could serve more,” Skelton said. “But we want the community’s buy-in, and we want our organizations to work well together. In the end, we’re all serving the same kingdom.”

The organizations being contacted so far include United Way, Good Neighbor Cupboard, the Westside Community Center, area churches and Friends of the Community Upstate, a Facebook-based community group that also helps organize holiday assistance.

Such discussions can be an exercise in charitable diplomacy. Every organization has its own donors, volunteers, traditions and ways of helping. Yet Thanksgiving creates a common problem: many groups want to make sure no family goes without a holiday meal, and the need is too large for any one organization to address alone.

A centralized distribution could reduce duplication, simplify transportation and create a clear message for families: come to one place, at one time, where the community has gathered its resources.

For donors, it could also mean a more direct answer to an uncomfortable question: whether each turkey, each bag of canned food and each dollar is reaching the person who needs it most.

AIM is already preparing for its fall food drive, Trick-or-Treat so Others May Eat, while continuing to collect money for turkeys and food for Thanksgiving bags.

Donations may be brought to the AIM food pantry Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The request is immediate, not seasonal. Food pantry work runs on the ordinary items that do not make much of a holiday photograph: canned vegetables, shelf-stable meals, cereal, pasta, peanut butter and staples that can be stretched across a week. Turkeys become the visible symbol of Thanksgiving assistance, but the bags surrounding them are what help families make a meal and sometimes get through the days after it.

United Way of Anderson County is expected to help serve as a convener and navigator for the larger effort. Kevin Capell, the organization’s CEO, said that role fits United Way’s broader mission as “a leader, a convener, and a mobilizer.”

The organization, which is celebrating 80 years in Anderson County, does not operate a food pantry or freezer. Its contribution is organizational: bringing people together, helping residents find available resources and using its 211-referral system to direct people toward assistance.

“If we can be a navigator for the community to say and an encourager to say, look, there’s a date and a time where the community can come together as one and provide a greater impact,” Capell said.

The result, he said, could resemble “a one-stop shop.”

The need does not end with Thanksgiving dinner.

Capell said United Way is seeing rising demand through its weekend snack-pack program, which helps provide food for children outside school hours. The holiday season creates a particularly difficult stretch: a holiday period in which children can go 18 days without the regular meals and food access available through school..

United Way is considering larger food bags or additional snack packs to help families through that period. The objective is broader than a single holiday distribution: to make sure children have something to eat during the long interval when school cafeterias are closed, and household budgets are strained by heating costs, holiday expenses and time away from work.

“That’s a need that is not being met that impacts not only that child but the families,” Capell said.

Capell pointed to the county’s back-to-school efforts as an example of what coordinated service can accomplish. During a back-to-school event at the mall, several organizations worked together to provide supplies and support.

The Thanksgiving effort would apply the same theory to food. Rather than asking organizations to compete for attention, volunteers or donated turkeys, they could all come together around one shared task.

According to TaxExemptWorld, there are currently 1,309 registered non-profit and 501(c) organizations in Anderson County, so coordination remains essential.

“If we could collaboratively coordinate for a greater impact,” he said, the community could better meet the needs that no single group can solve alone.

The broader coordination effort may also depend on 211, the statewide resource and referral line that connects people to food, housing, health, utility and other forms of assistance.

United Way is already receiving calls through 211 from residents looking for help. Capell said the system’s funding model is becoming more stable, with the program being incorporated into a recurring state budget request through the Department of Consumer Affairs rather than relying on one-time earmarks.

That change, he said, could allow the service to expand and become more reliable.

For Thanksgiving, the value of 211 may be less technological than human. A person facing an empty refrigerator, a missed paycheck or a hard choice between groceries and another bill does not need to know which church or nonprofit is giving away turkeys on which morning. They need a clear answer on where to go, when to arrive and what help is available.

The proposed Civic Center distribution is still in its planning phase. Organizers must recruit participating groups, coordinate food and volunteer logistics, decide on a date and create a system that is both generous and fair.

But the premise has already emerged.

Thanksgiving is one of the few days on the calendar when an entire community agrees that no one should be left without a meal. The work now is to make that principle practical, not six turkeys for the best planner in the line, but enough food, shared wisely, for as many families as Anderson County can reach.