Ottawa

Ottawa Mission appealing for turkey donations ahead of Thanksgiving meal

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The Ottawa Mission in downtown Ottawa.

The Ottawa Mission is appealing for turkey donations ahead of Thanksgiving, as the agency prepares to serve more than 14,000 Thanksgiving dinners this week.

Chef Ric Watson says it's "extremely busy" at the Ottawa Mission, as staff will serve Thanksgiving dinner through the week with the Food Truck Program and at the traditional Thanksgiving meal on Monday at the Mission.

"We started on Monday with our food truck program; we plan this week to go to 35 low-income locations around Ottawa and distribute 12,000 meals that come out of the food trucks," Watson told Newstalk 580 CFRA's Ottawa at Work with Patricia Boal.

"On the Thanksgiving Monday, we will be serving up at the Ottawa Mission; the doors will be open to everyone and we'll be serving up over 2,000 meals at the Mission starting at 11 o'clock."

The Mission will serve 6,000 lb of turkey, 3,000 lb of peeled potatoes, 2,000 lb of fresh carrots and 150 gallons of gravy this week.

"We've had volunteers working night and day processing these turkeys," Watson said. "Kitchen has been going night and day."

The Ottawa Mission relies on donations from the community to serve Thanksgiving dinner. Watson says the Ottawa Mission could still use more donations of turkeys to help provide a Thanksgiving meal to the community.

"We're still short on turkeys; that's definitely a big need," Watson said. "If they can't donate a turkey, they can go online. Money helps us so we can purchase what we need."

Turkey donations can be dropped off at the garage entrance to the Ottawa Mission at the corner of Waller and Besserer. You can also donate online at https://ottawamission.com/donate/.