$27 Will Buy a Family in Need a Turkey and the Fixings for Thanksgiving Dinner Through WSCAH’s Turkey Challenge

There’s nothing better!

By Carol Tannenhauser

It’s November 1st and the 2021 WSCAH Turkey Challenge is underway!

Every November, for more than 20 years, West Side Campaign Against Hunger (WSCAH) has been presenting the Upper West Side with its Turkey Challenge: How many families experiencing food insecurity can we — together — ensure have a turkey and all the fixings for Thanksgiving dinner this year? In 2020, the goal of 5,000 families was reached. This year, the goal is 7,000.

Distribution starts to tomorrow, November 2nd. For $27 you can provide one family with a turkey and all they need for a full Thanksgiving dinner. All donations throughout November will go to the Turkey Challenge.

Here’s a link to the landing page, making it easy to donate, to track the progress of the challenge, and even to hold your own fundraiser for WSCAH, if you want to increase your impact.

And here’s a look at volunteers and recipients alike in last year’s WSCAH Turkey Challenge.

West Side Campaign Against Hunger (WSCAH) is an emergency food distribution, nonprofit organization that pioneered a national model for providing healthy food to those who need it with dignity and choice. Founded 42 years ago in the basement of Saint Paul & Saint Andrew United Methodist Church, on the corner of 86th Street and West End Avenue, WSCAH developed the concept of a “free supermarket” in the early 1990s.

“With the number of people coming to us for help since the start of the pandemic, we’ve switched over to bagged distribution and invested more in our mobile delivery systems,” a spokesperson for WSCAH told WSR. “We adapted and increased our services to meet the growing need. In 2019, WSCAH was providing healthy food at 16 sites in Manhattan and the Bronx – in the last year we’ve worked with 65 sites across all five boroughs.”

“Anyone can still shop at WSCAH, we don’t believe in eligibility requirements,” she concluded. “We believe that if someone is coming to us for help they truly need it.”

Last year, WSCAH served over 77,000 customers with 4.4 million pounds of food. Fifty percent of all food distributed was fresh fruits and vegetables.