In the kitchen at Meals on Wheels of Northeastern PA, volunteers poured gravy over turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes.
Up the street on North Washington Avenue in Scranton, volunteers from around the region packed trunks with paper bags full of traditional Thanksgiving items.
Meals on Wheels and their partners, and the Family to Family Food Basket program worked just blocks away from each other Wednesday to feed those in need ahead of the holiday.
"We wanted to be able to mobilize as many community members as possible the day before to really help them," said Lindsey Skripka, executive director of Meals on Wheels.
The volunteers at Meals on Wheels, including Pennsylvania Secretary of Aging Jason Kavulich, packaged around 210 pre-made meals to deliver to seniors living in isolation. The organization partnered with the Lackawanna County Area on Aging and the United Way to provide the meals and volunteers.
Social isolation is an issue year round, said Skripka. The volunteers were not just dropping off the meals but also checking in on the seniors and seeing how they could help.
"The holidays are a remarkable time where individuals that are isolated would feel even more isolated, because maybe they don't have family nearby, or they don't have a way to get to other places," she said.
Outside the Scranton Cultural Center, two large lines of cars waited to pick up Thanksgiving meals. Inside, volunteers bagged 3,500 meals. It was just past 11 a.m.
"It's still early and we've already gone through probably 2,600 by now," said Linda Robeson, director of Family to Family. The program is under Friends of the Poor.
The distribution was set to run until 5 p.m. The food was handed out by 1:30 p.m.
The families receive a traditional Thanksgiving dinner including, a roughly 14-pound turkey and stuffing, potatoes, apples, vegetables, cranberry sauce, pie and bread.
"I don't know that I would ever be able to sit down again and enjoy Thanksgiving if I wasn't part of something like this," said Robeson.
Family to Family purchases the food for the giveaway. It costs around $150,000. They also provide a meal for Christmas and Easter. The organization is always open to donations. They can be mailed to: Family to Family, PO Box 13, Scranton, PA 18503.
For more details, visit friendsofthepoorscranton.com.
