‘meeting The Need, Whatever That Need May Be’: Southland Comes Together To Feed 1,000 Families

Just before dawn Tuesday, a truck holding a thousand frozen turkeys in cardboard pallets pulled up outside the headquarters of Suburban Access Outreach in Homewood, and volunteers sprang into action.

By the end of the day, those thousand turkeys would be distributed to churches, school districts and nonprofits across the south suburbs, who would ensure they reached families in need. Along with a turkey, each family received a grocery bag with boxed cornbread, green beans, stuffing mix and mashed potatoes.

“The demand is really high,” said Nicholas Koster, Suburban Access Outreach’s director of outreach. “We’re committed to meeting the need, whatever that need may be.”

Koster was stacking cardboard pallets of frozen turkeys into piles for pickup: One hundred turkeys to South Holland Elementary District 151. Seventy-five for South Suburban Public Action to Deliver Shelter, or PADS, a nonprofit that works to support unhoused people. Sixty to the mayor of Phoenix.

“This is our biggest one-day, give-back event,” Koster said. “This is my favorite day of the year, by far.”

When the Thanksgiving program started 13 years ago, it fed 100 families, executive director Geni Cutler said. Suburban Access Outreach is a project of Suburban Access, an organization that works to support people with intellectual disabilities and their families, helping connect them to services and resources.

“About 13 years ago, I went to the board and talked about the disparity between our very wealthy communities and our underserved communities, and asked if we could do something,” Cutler said. “We didn’t want to duplicate any services that a nonprofit was already doing, so we tried to find our niche, and it ended up being food insecurity and clothing.”

The Thanksgiving program has grown steadily from that beginning, serving some families who work with Suburban Access directly and many who don’t. Sarah Masciotra, a case manager for Suburban Access, said she personally delivers dinner to several families she works with each year.

As cars pulled up outside Tuesday to be loaded down with turkeys for distribution in schools and churches, families served by Suburban Access stopped by to pick up their own dinners and look through a well-stocked clothing closet.

Nicholas Koster, center, and other volunteers sort and label stacks of frozen turkeys Tuesday outside Suburban Access Outreach. (Evy Lewis/Daily Southtown)

MaryEllen Negrete left a career as a respiratory therapist to become a full-time caregiver to her daughter, Kayla Negrete, who was born with a rare disability called Angelman syndrome.

“I work for her,” Negrete said. “But that’s OK. I’m home with my daughter, so I’m blessed to have that.”

Negrete’s income is limited to a stipend she receives to care for Kayla. Because of that, she said, being able to get the free meal makes a big difference.

Terri Thomas also has a disabled child who receives support from Suburban Access.

“They help me out tremendously,” Thomas said. “With everything, the turkey — cause all of that’s a blessing, baby. It’s not a given. It’s a blessing.”

MaryEllen Negrete talks to a Suburban Access Outreach employee as she looks through the clothing closet on Tuesday. (Evy Lewis/Daily Southtown)

Ayana Hartzol, director of special education for District 151, arrived to collect food that would be sent home with students from the district’s four schools.

“It’s very, very important right now, because many of our families have been affected by the EBT shutoff,” Hartzol said, referring to the interruption of food benefits during the recent government shutdown. “We’re having increasingly more homelessness. Lots of our families are without jobs. And so it’s just very, very important in this time.”

Koster and Cutler both said that the demand for food support is especially high this year, as disruptions to government services have put already vulnerable families in increasingly precarious situations.

“The future’s uncertain, right? With Medicaid— All of our clients are on Medicaid,” Cutler said. “Most of our clients have the Link card. Most of our families have the Link card.”

Bagged sides, including cornbread mix and green beans, await pickup on Tuesday. These bags are bound for students at South Holland Elementary District 151. (Evy Lewis/Daily Southtown)

Tuesday’s distribution was the culmination of weeks of work. Shelf stable items like green beans and cornbread mix were collected and donated by businesses and community members, while monetary donations went to purchasing the 1,000 frozen turkeys.

“The Southland has been incredible,” Koster said. “Raising money for us, collecting items for us.”

One of those businesses was Serendipity Yoga and Wellness in Homewood, whose owner, Liz Smith, set out to singlehandedly collect enough boxed cornbread mix for all 1,000 families. With two boxes in every grocery bag, that meant her goal was 2,000 boxes.

“I just am so fortunate that we have a really generous and fantastic community of human beings that come and practice yoga with us, and they really show up and make sure that that goal gets met,” Smith said. “This year, we ended up with just shy of 2,300 boxes.”

Smith is a board member of Suburban Access.

“I will be honest, I am a competitive person,” Smith said, laughing. “I like a good competition, and I love a good collaboration. And so the first year we participated, it was really which business could get the most of one item, and we realized that like pretty quickly, we’re like, oh, we could actually do an item all alone at the studio.”

Frozen turkeys sit on a pallet Tuesday as volunteers load a truck from Family Christian Health Center in Harvey outside Suburban Access Outreach. (Evy Lewis/Daily Southtown)

A flock of volunteers assisted with loading up every vehicle that arrived.

“This is a well-oiled train,” said Sherry Hensley, who works at Suburban Access. “Everything is pretty efficient.”

Many volunteers have helped with the program for years. Some work for Suburban Access, but others, like Terri O’Brien, whose sister works for the organization, just like to help out.

“It really is amazing,” said O’Brien, who said she’s volunteered with the program for about 10 years. “I’ve done different jobs, I’ve unloaded the turkeys in the morning and I’ve done the running part. Both are good. The turkeys are heavy, I retired from that.”

Cutler said that part of the reasoning behind the giveaway is that Thanksgiving, as a holiday associated with food, is when the issue of hunger comes into the sharpest relief for many people.

“We have always said, we know this doesn’t solve the problem of hunger in our community,” said Cutler. “But if it can shine a light on the issue, it’s worth it, and for these perhaps four or five thousand people, they’re getting a nice meal.”

elewis@chicagotribune.com