Monroe Residents Asked to Help Needy in Norwalk, Bridgeport Get Thanksgiving Turkeys

The Bridgeport Rescue Mission is asking Monroe residents to contribute frozen Thanksgiving turkeys or money to a project that prepares Thanksgiving food for distribution in poor areas of Bridgeport and South Norwalk.

The organization will take frozen turkeys at its Bridgeport location, or you can contribute $20 per bird online through the organization’s website.

Here are more details from an announcement the group sent out Thursday:

Bridgeport Rescue Mission will soon begin packing 3,000 Thanksgiving Dinner Pantry Boxes that will be distributed to near-homeless and working-poor families in Bridgeport and South Norwalk during their Great ThanksGivinig Project.

The boxes will be filled with all the fixings—including frozen turkeys—that poverty-stricken men, women and children need to prepare a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in their own homes.

Executive Director Terry Wilcox said the Mission needs to receive 3,000 frozen turkeys—12 to 24 pounds each—to ensure no one in need will go without a turkey for Thanksgiving. “We’re inviting churches, schools, businesses and other groups to form ‘turkey teams’ to see how many birds they can bring in,” he said.

Donated turkeys are also used in the Thanksgiving Day dinners the Mission will distribute to hungry and homeless people from their Mobile Kitchen and in the meals that will be served to Mission students and needy men, women and children from their main dining room.

Wilcox explained that close to 90 percent of the food items used in the more than 500,000 meals the Mission provides at the holidays and throughout the year are donated by individuals, companies and church congregations who organize food drives.

The Mission also needs the basics such as stuffing mix, canned sweet potatoes, peas, corn, green beans and cranberry sauce and shares a complete list of items needed on their website at www.BridgeportRescueMission.org.

“When our Mission friends know of this pressing need, I’m confident they’ll come through for us as they always do,” Wilcox said. “We can never have too many turkeys this time of year.”

“Thanksgiving is a time for gathering with our loved ones,” Wilcox said. “Our annual Great ThanksGiving Project distribution is a way to offer struggling families the dignity of giving thanks together over a meal they’ve prepared at home. That’s why it’s so important we’re able to give each family a turkey.”

Frozen turkeys can be dropped off at the Mission’s Donation Center, 1069 Connecticut Ave, Unit 2-B, Bridgeport [here’s a Google map], every Tuesday through Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

You can also donate “virtual” turkeys by making a gift of $20 for each bird you would like to contribute. Financial donations can be made online at www.BridgeportRescueMission.org.

For interviews, tours, photo opportunities or more information about Bridgeport Rescue Mission, contact Linda Casey, director of development and strategic planning, at the phone numbers listed above.

Bridgeport Rescue Mission demonstrates the love of God to hungry, homeless and addicted people throughout coastal Fairfield County, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We fight poverty from the inside out by providing a place of hope and dignity through a yearlong educational program, biblical counseling and case management. We are funded by compassionate individuals, churches, businesses and organizations.

[Patch file photo]