Sign-up open for free, delivered Thanksgiving meals and the volunteers to make it happen
GREENSBORO — After Antonio Kennedy was asked to help put together a Thanksgiving meal in 2023 for the hungry in Miami, he asked the national nonprofit Operation Turkey if Greensboro could be next.
The all-volunteer organization provides free traditional holiday meals that are delivered to those who sign up. His friend, NFL Hall of Fame offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie, had asked him to lead the Miami meals. The former Baltimore Raven and Miami Dolphin player's foundation is a sponsor.
"I knew Greensboro needed this," said the 29-year-old Dudley graduate who is also a hotel consultant who travels the country helping hotels and restaurants.
With a "yes," Kennedy, who grew up attending United Institutional Baptist Church in the shadow of downtown, has sought volunteers and opened a sign-up list for those who will have meals delivered to them.
It is the newest offering in the effort to feed the homeless and the hungry during the holidays. Greensboro Urban Ministry provides a sit-down meal during the day. Several churches provide boxed-up fixings for individuals and families to prepare for their families.
Operation Turkey was founded more than two decades ago by Richard Bagdonas, who having boxed up leftovers after a Thanksgiving out with friends in Austin, Texas, decided to give the food to a disabled homeless man in a wheelchair on his way home.
He pulled over and asked the man if he had eaten that day. The man couldn't respond because he was mentally challenged, but another guy on the sidewalk with him said "thank you" and fed him the food, with a crying Bagdonas in his car watching and vowing to do something to help.
As it expands to Greensboro, Kennedy is looking for people to help prepare the food and others to help box it up, and drivers to make the deliveries. The food goes to the first 2,000 people to sign up and meals will be delivered between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Thanksgiving.
"It's not just the homeless but anybody in need of a meal," Kennedy said, naming the hungry, people who might spend the holiday alone, and others.
People sign up by going to operationturkey.com and clicking on the red "request a meal" tab. Those who want to support the local effort can click on the "get involved tab." The national group says a $7 donation supports two meals.
What's exciting to Kennedy is the prospect of delivering multiple meals to the same address, which helps families come together during the holiday.
"They can eat with their families and have those same memories as other people," Kennedy said. "We're just supplying the meals and the food."
Already, there are operations in several other North Carolina cities, including Fayetteville and Raleigh, but none in the Triad area. Kennedy is hoping to expand to Durham and Charlotte in 2025.
The effort is on track to give away more than 75,000 meals this year across about two dozen cities across the country. Greensboro sponsors include Mechanics and Farmers Bank and the Supreme Realty Hospitality Group.
The food, including smoked turkeys, will be cooked and prepped at the Greensboro church.
Kennedy, a North Carolina Central University graduate, had briefly moved back to Greensboro in 2019 to help his sister get through her final year of high school after the death of their mother.
As the manager of two Greensboro hotels during the coinciding COVID years, Kennedy understands the undertaking. He had gone to social services and state health officials about housing people who were homeless at his hotels during the pandemic, with the state picking up the tab.
He also saw the reality of what the homeless face when there isn't a safety net. When that program ended, the homeless were given a bag of groceries and a tent "and sent walking up Gate City Boulevard," Kennedy said.
Already, students from UNCG and A&T have been among the first to sign up to help during the Thanksgiving meal through word of mouth. Many of those who choose to get involved do so because they feel they already have so much and want to do for others, while others just want to be a blessing to someone else.
For those who want to volunteer with children, a table will be set up for them to help decorate the top of the boxes with Thanksgiving messages and sticker.
"To give a little cheer to people who are receiving those boxes," Kennedy said.
Kennedy also said that the national organization tries helping in other ways connected to the meals. Friends of his who are teachers told him about students who come to school with shoes missing soles and without coats. Boxes will be set up at the church to collect new or gently-used shoes and coats and new packaged socks to be donated to local schools that need them.
The bins will be available in the days before Thanksgiving and on Thanksgiving Day at the church, which is located at 802 E. Market Street, near the NCA&T campus.
He's hoping the effort catches on, as the Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away.
"We need lots more volunteers," Kennedy said. "It takes a community effort to do this."
Faith and Values Reporter
