News Article

Gonzaga students, faculty and staff are getting into the act as well with “Take Your Turkey to Work Day” on Monday (Nov. 13) as many Zags are expected to donate a turkey to help ensure that those who can’t afford it will have a warm Thanksgiving meal with all the fixings.

Already, the Campus Kitchen at GU has received more than 400 pounds of donations from food drives. In addition, several Gonzaga departments have agreed to sponsor baskets with all the fixings for Thanksgiving dinners, said Rebecca Teichmann, coordinator of the Campus Kitchen at Gonzaga.

“We are also holding a double food drive this Sunday at two Rosauer grocery stores,” Teichmann. “Thursday and Friday of next week (Nov. 16-17) will be our cooking days, and Saturday and Sunday we will deliver the meals.”

The Turkeypaloozers plan to bring 110 meals to the American Indian Community Center, 60 to St. Anne’s Children and Family Center, 25 boxed dinners and four turkeys fully complemented with fixings for St. Margaret’s Shelter, as well as 14 boxed dinners for the O’Malley House.

“We’re talking well over 200 full Thanksgiving dinners,” said Teichmann. “My office looks like a battle ground of boxed mashed potatoes, green beans, and pie filling. All of our cooking will be done in the Cataldo Hall kitchen where we normally cook our meals, and we’ll be working around the Sodexho staff, hopefully not getting in their way.”

Teichmann’s Zag student leaders are running the show preparing meals. “They have signed up to run all of the shifts and to coordinate the volunteers, the meals and the deliveries,” she said. “This should be a great event.”

The Campus Kitchen at Gonzaga was modeled after the DC Central Kitchen, its parent organization, which started the concept of a "community kitchen." The program is supported by Sodexho, Gonzaga's food-services provider, which donates the food for the Kitchen's offerings to the needy.

For more information, contact Rebecca Teichmann via e-mail or at (509) 323-6939.