SACRAMENTO, Calif — Over half of free turkey dinners a Sacramento nonprofit set aside for veterans Sunday were not collected, prompting the organization to donate leftovers to a local shelter.
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8985, located at 1515 4th St., planned to give away 200 turkey dinners to any veteran or active military members from 1-4 p.m. They stayed until 6 p.m. and handed out roughly 90 dinners. About 100 leftover dinners were donated to the Union Gospel Mission (UGM) homeless shelter, and about 10 went to veterans or youth services.
Christian Okeze, head chef at UGM, said the shelter’s seen a goods shortage amid the historic 43-day government shutdown, which ended Nov. 12. Because of a delay in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, people sought more food from UGM…