Ingleside’s Record-Breaking Holiday Turkey Drive Continues This Saturday

Residents of San Francisco’s southern neighborhoods can help fight hunger among the homeless and poor by supporting the eighth annual SF Turkey Drive this Saturday at St. Emydius Church parking lot.

“This neighborhood drive has become important for the food supply of St. Anthony’s Foundation,” said SF Turkey Drive organizer Pierre Smit. “For the last 2 years, we have been able to collect food for about 45,000 meals.”

For the Thanksgiving drive on Nov. 23, 15 volunteers collected turkeys, boxes of fresh vegetables if they did not feel like purchasing meat products, checks and online donations made through www.sfturkeydrive.com. A total of 454 turkeys were donated, a 39% increase over the 2018 take.

To drum up donations for the 2019 holiday season, Smit, who started the drive out of his home in 2012, mailed over 8,300 fliers to neighbors two weeks prior to the event.

“The St. Emydius parish have been very supportive of this effort,” Smit said. “Together we have built a solid movement in the area going from the Sunset to the Excelsior for being the drop-off site for helping those folks who need the St. Anthony’s Foundation for a bowl of soup and a bowl of fresh air from their daily hard life.”

All donations are taken to St. Anthony’s after the collection by the volunteers, most of whom are parishioners from St. Emydius, neighbors, family members and friends.

Event Details

When: Saturday, Dec. 21, 2019 from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Where: 350 De Montfort Ave. (at Jules Avenue)
Note: Donors can bring turkeys, hams and boxes of fresh vegetables
For more information about the SF Turkey Drive, visit www.sfturkeydrive.com.

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