More than a dozen volunteers gather around Bill Olmstead at the Lakeland Pantry in Arbor Vitae.
As chairman of the pantry board, Olmstead offered them a quick thank you and prayer before they started packaging Thanksgiving meals for 85 families.
“I just want to thank each one of you for coming. This is a big deal for the pantry, and obviously it's a big deal for the 85 families and the almost 400 people that are going to benefit from what you're doing here today,” said Olmstead.
The families are in the Lakeland Union, Lac du Flambeau, MHLT, Arbor Vitae-Woodruff, and North Lakeland School Districts.
The bags of food included everything a Thanksgiving meal might need from the mash potatoes and gravy to the turkey and stuffing.
“Pretty much everything that you would have at home for your Thanksgiving meal, we're providing for those families,” said Lorna Springate, the Lakeland Pantry Director.
She was particularly excited to see students from MHLT among those volunteering to package the meals.
“I love it. Just to see, not necessarily this part, but we've got school students that are participating, and it gives them a sense of responsibility,” said Springate. “They know that there's people out there that need their help. The child standing next to them might actually be one of our customers. We don't know, and they don't know.”
Also volunteering were people from local grocery stores and the Weston Amazon Plant.
Amazon purchased turkeys from TJ’s Meat Market in Minocqua.
“Bought about 50 turkeys, just the impact on as many families as we can. That was the most exciting part about it,” said Johnny Pierre, the Community Site Specialist.
Trig’s, Save More, and the Ojibwe Market in Lac du Flambeau donated turkeys.
Employees from Trig’s and the Ojibwe Market also donated their time.
Kindle Furtak is the director of marketing and communication for the T.A. Solberg Company and was one of four employees helping pack meals.
“This cause is really near and dear to our hearts. We work in the food industry, and we live in these communities. We just want to do whatever we can to help people and kind of ease some of that need where we can,” said Furtak.
It was a similar sentiment from Jeff Williams, the Operation Manager at the Ojibwe Market.
“Everybody should be looking out for each other, no matter where you're from,” said Williams. “We should be trying to help each other. This day and age, there's not a lot of that out there, and I think it's a good thing to help people.”
Springate is thankful for the donations. The pantry wouldn’t have been able to supply turkeys for families without them.
Springate says it’s especially important right now as she’s seeing a rise in customers coming into the Lakeland Pantry.
“There's a lot of elderly that have that need because they're trying to make it, maybe on Social Security alone, and that just with the price of groceries just does not make it for them,” she said.
“Then you've got your young families that have children in school and in the same thing there, they may work two jobs just to be able to try to make ends meet.”
While the need is still great, the Thanksgiving table is fuller for 85 families in the Lakeland area this year thanks to the generosity of people and businesses in the community.
