By Matt King Staff Writer
Gilroy
– In response to reports that local aid organizations are
woefully short of food to donate to needy families for the holiday
season, Saint Louise Regional Hospital has issued The Great Turkey
Challenge, a call for local businesses to match the hospital’s
$1,000 donation to fund holiday food drives
.
By Matt King Staff Writer

Gilroy – In response to reports that local aid organizations are woefully short of food to donate to needy families for the holiday season, Saint Louise Regional Hospital has issued The Great Turkey Challenge, a call for local businesses to match the hospital’s $1,000 donation to fund holiday food drives.

“The Great Turkey Challenge came from the big turkey himself,” said Vivian Smith of Ted Fox, who issued the challenge. Fox is the hospital’s president and CEO. Smith is vice-president of public and community relations.

“The gauntlet has been flung down,” Fox said Wednesday. “All the other turkey businesses out there need to line up and help.”

Fox intends to personally solicit select companies for donations. His first target was his friend Steve Staloch, the publisher of The Dispatch, who will donate a turkey in the name of each of the paper’s 54 employees.

“As the local newspaper, we feel it’s not only appropriate, but we also can communicate to the community what is a large and very real need,” Staloch said.

In fact, the challenge was inspired by a story in the Nov. 12 Dispatch detailing the inadequate food supplies at the Salvation Army and St. Joseph’s Family Center.

Together, the organizations hope to provide more than 1,500 meals from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Last week, the Salvation Army had only 30 turkeys on hand.

David Cox, executive director at St. Joseph’s, said that donations have risen dramatically in the past few days. At the end of last week, St. Joseph’s had only 40 turkeys. As of Tuesday, they had nearly 400.

But the organization still needs about 180 more turkeys by Tuesday so that it can deliver a full complement of Thanksgiving meals, and another 550 for Christmas dinners.

St. Joseph’s delivers the meals, along with clothing and toys to places such as the Boccardo Family Living Center in San Martin, and Sunset Gardens, a senior living center, and Victory Outreach, a men’s recovery center, in Gilroy.

“We’re glad he’s being successful, but he’s only 40 percent of the way to his goal,” Fox said. “We intend to make a difference.”

Cox called the challenge “overwhelming.”

“I always have great faith and trust in the community of Gilroy to respond to our needs,” he said. “This challenge is demonstrative of the social consciousness that’s on everyone’s mind this time of year, but it’s the example of the year-round efforts of prominent institutions like St. Louise and the Gilroy Dispatch that make our work successful.”

In addition to the Turkey Challenge, Saint Louise is also participating in KSBW’s Share Your Holidays program to benefit the Salvation Army.

As part of that program, the Army will take donation of food, clothes and toys on Friday, Dec. 10, at Nob Hill Foods on First St.

The head of the Fifth Street Salvation Army, Major Carlos Gonzzatti said that he needs about 50 more turkeys to meet his Thanksgiving quota.

“This is fine, very fine,” he said of the Turkey Challenge. “We hope we will have enough to feed everyone.”

Donate a big bird at:

• The Salvation Army, 200 Fifth St.,

848-5373

• St. Joseph’s Family Center at 7950 Church St., 842-6662

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