SANTA MARIA, Calif. – NewsChannel 12 has unveiled its annual KCOY Holiday Turkey Drive, which will have a changed format this year due to COVID-19.
Once again, KCOY Turkey Drive will gain benefits for consumers of good Samaritan Shelter and SLO Food Bank.
Since its inception more than 10 years ago, fundraising has been a month’s effort to collect turkeys and food materials for families in need for thanksgiving vacations.
It peaked Thursday before Thanksgiving with the network by making charitable donations to various delivery locations on the Central Coast.
However, due to the pandemic, this year’s crusade will be positioned basically in virtual format.
“We evolved and moved online,” said Garret Olson, CEO of SLO Food Bank. “For operational and public fitness reasons, we settle for all of our online donations, so instead of settling for turkeys in the parking lot, we ask to donate online.
Cash donations will be accepted online on the official KCOY Holiday Turkey Drive website.
Donors will be able to target which nonprofit they want to direct their contribution to.
Although no turkeys are collected in San Luis Obispo County, Good Samaritan will arrange a collection of changed users on the last day of Thursday, November 19.
Unlike each and every year since the creation of Turkey Drive, KCOY Studios in Santa Maria will not serve as a collection site.
“We will be at Stowasser (Buick GMC) on Betteravia Road, and we will have no contact,” said Kirsten Cahoon, director of operations for the Good Samaritan shelter. “A limited staff will be there to help. We are not going to unite other people. Your more can happen, open your trunk, you can unlock your door. Other masked and gloved others will do it, they will remove your turkey or your gift from your car and you can keep driving. We mitigate any type of threat to the network and to our customers. “
A novelty this year is the addition of “Turkey Bucks”, which can be purchased at the California Fresh Market in San Luis Obispo and Pismo Beach, as at the Grocery Outlet Bargain Market in San Luis Obispo, Arroyo Grande and Lompoc.
Donations collected at the acquisition of Turkey Bucks in San Luis Obispo County will be sent to the SLO Food Bank, while those in Santa Barbara County will move to the Good Samaritan Shelter.
“Shopping at attractive grocery stores. They raise those funds, then they come directly to us and every dollar you give becomes seven Christmas foods for our neighbors in need,” Olson said. “If you’re going to give, regardless of the level, $1, $10, $100, each and every dollar is used smartly. “
Another novelty to donate is the text.
People can @KCOY Turkey to 52014 euros.
“It’s less hard to give this year than in the past,” Olson said. “You can do it from the comfort of your own home. You can do it via SMS, so you don’t have to go to the supermarket store to give away this year.
The two local nonprofits point out that donations are needed more than ever this year.
“It’s been a tough year for the homeless network with everything we’ve had to face this year,” Cahoon said. “We’re seeing an increase in the number of consumers, an increase in the number of consumers we host, and the ability to get the resources to host the Thanksgiving dinner for your family circle this year, it’s difficult, so we expect the network to provide that. “
“We’ve never noticed a wish as we see it now,” Olson said. “Hunger in San Luis Obispo County has increased by 154 percent. We feed about one in six of our neighbors, but now we are up to about two out of five, so nearly 40 percent, about 74,000 citizens of St. Louis Bishop face hunger every day. “
For more information and to donate, visit the KCOY Holiday Turkey Drive website.
Dave Alley is a journalist and host of KCOY KEYT (c) KKFX.
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