Thanks to the helping hands of hundreds of volunteers from the University of Georgia and surrounding community, more than 1,400 Athens-Clarke County neighbors will not face hunger this Thanksgiving holiday.

This year marks the 13th annual Turkeypalooza, an all-hands-on-deck event led by the Athens Community Council on Aging, the UGA Office of Service-Learning’s Campus Kitchen and Epting Events, which provides logistical support. In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, volunteers across UGA and Athens-Clarke County donate food and funds, collect supplies, prepare grocery bags and cook holiday meals for those experiencing food insecurity.

“Turkeypalooza remains rooted in generosity, collaboration and compassion,” said Erin Beasley, vice president and director of operations with ACCA. “Even as the scale has expanded and the challenges facing our community have shifted, the heart of the event is unchanged. It is still a moment when people from across Athens come together to ensure that every neighbor can celebrate the season with dignity, nourishment and joy. Truly, it is an event worthy of the gratitude this time of year inspires.”

It takes weeks of preparation and nearly 300 volunteers to bring Turkeypalooza together. At UGA, it starts in the fields at UGArden, where faculty, staff and students harvest fresh collards during Public Service and Outreach’s Week of Service. Across campus, departments and units collect canned goods. In the kitchen at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education & Hotel, chefs smoke turkeys to perfection. Students pack bags and cook fully prepared individual meals. Then, volunteers from UGA and across the community deliver the bags, turkeys and prepared meals. Every step reflects the collaboration of students, faculty, staff and community members working to ensure no one in Athens faces the holiday hungry.

“This event is so important because it demonstrates that we are a community that cares for our neighbors and honors the needs of others,” said Julianne O’Connell, Campus Kitchen coordinator. “I also think we can serve as an example to other college towns and communities how to leverage the resources and manpower of the university and community partners to serve others and make an event of this magnitude.”

This year, 37 organizations, clubs, units and departments across UGA donated more than 2,000 cans of Thanksgiving staples including green beans, cream of mushroom soup and cranberry sauce, as well as 1,800 pounds of potatoes. ACCA also raised $60,000 to purchase hundreds of frozen turkeys and pumpkin pie crusts to go into the grocery bags and fund senior hunger initiatives.

More than 40 UGA student volunteers, interns and graduate assistants with Campus Kitchen spent the weekend before Thanksgiving at Covenant Presbyterian Church carving turkeys, mashing potatoes, sauteing collards and baking pumpkin pies to prepare 133 Thanksgiving meals. Additional volunteers, including UGA students in the Public Service and Outreach Student Scholars program, gathered at ACCA to assemble 276 grocery bags, which include the individual canned foods, fresh collard greens and a frozen turkey.

“What I love most about Turkeypalooza is the community it brings together,” said Olivia Kirkman, a Campus Kitchen shift leader and third-year UGA student majoring in biomedical physiology with a minor in nutritional sciences and horticulture. “From volunteers, shift leaders, and interns, to family members and friends, everyone jumps in, and it’s truly the best time.”

This was Cailtin Grdinich’s fourth Turkeypalooza. Grdinich, a graduate student with Campus Kitchen who is nearing completion of her Master of Social Work and Master of Public Health dual degree, said the event is her favorite time of year. She’s always amazed to see months of planning and hard work come together over a single weekend.

“Although people come and go from year to year, one thing that always stays the same is the desire and willingness people have to give up a portion of their time to help ensure families have a home-cooked meal to eat for Thanksgiving,” she said. “One thing that has always made Turkeypalooza, and any Campus Kitchen event, so special is that the people who help all want the same thing — to make sure there is enough nutritious and delicious food to go around.”

In the past 13 years, Turkeypalooza has provided more than 2,200 Thanksgiving grocery bags and more than 1,350 cooked meals. The event requires a great deal of coordination and effort and is a testament to the collaborative partnerships between UGA and Athens organizations dedicated to fighting food waste and hunger.

“Turkeypalooza is such a fond event for me because I get to do it with my favorite people,” said Jimena Ruano, a Campus Kitchen shift leader and fourth-year UGA student majoring in public relations with a minor in sociology. “Even when Turkeypalooza can be stressful, I love having the leadership team around, knowing we have each other to fall back on and get everything done. I leave having known all our hard work paid off to help those in our community, and we had so much fun doing it.”