Elk Grove Food Bank Services hosted its annual Thanksgiving turkey giveaway Saturday. The event, in its 23rd year, gives turkeys and other food for a Thanksgiving meal to local residents facing food insecurity.
This year’s event was the largest in the organization’s history. More than 2,170 families signed up to receive turkeys and so many people volunteered that the food bank had to turn some away.
The event comes at a moment when food banks have already seen a steep increase in need because of the recent government shutdown and interruptions in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Elk Grove food bank board Chair Suman Singha said. “Normally, we serve about 8,000 people a month,” Singha said. “But all of a sudden we saw the numbers skyrocketing.”…