Portland Groups Deliver Free Meal Boxes and Serve Thanksgiving Dinner to Community

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) – Groups across Portland and Vancouver served hot meals to thousands of people and delivered thousands of Thanksgiving meal kits this weekend.

In Portland, more than 300 Sunshine Division volunteers delivered food to more than 2,000 families.

Volunteers assembled food boxes containing frozen turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and produce, then delivered the boxes directly to the doorsteps of those in need.

This is the first time the food pantry has made home deliveries of food for Thanksgiving, part of an expansion of their December delivery program that began in 1923.

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Kyle Kamberg is the executive director of Sunshine Division.

“This is over a decade of helping people in our community, but it won’t happen without the support of the community, so a huge thank you to not only the volunteers, but to everyone who organizes the food drive, everyone who can make a financial gift,” Kamberg said. “Hunger doesn’t just happen during the holidays, your gift, your generosity at this time of year allows us to do this work 52 weeks a year.”

In addition to home delivery, Sunshine Division also delivers turkey bags to partner social service agencies.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the nonprofit Dream For Life held its 12th annual free Thanksgiving dinner at Living Hope Church in Woodland.

What started as a restaurant called Daddy D’s Southern Style Barbecue has grown into an annual community event celebrating the holidays.

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Donnie Vercher, CEO of Dream For Life, said the need for food has increased over the past couple of years.

“The last couple of years, since COVID, it’s been getting bigger and bigger,” Vercher said. “A lot of people are struggling, even those who think they are doing well, nice houses, nice cars, but they are struggling inside, the cost of food has become such that people are finding it difficult to afford food, so this is what we give them – relief for the day or something like that. I don’t know how to explain it, but people have a hard time, man.”

No one was turned away, and more than 7,000 people were fed.

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