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Salvation Army's annual Turkey Fest feeds over 1,000 people in Omaha

Posted at 1:56 PM, Nov 29, 2019
and last updated 2019-11-29 14:56:28-05

OMAHA, Neb. — Thanksgiving is a meal everyone looks forward to. But when you don't have the means to make the food yourself, the annual Salvation Army Turkey Fest steps in every year to help. The event, is no small production.

"And here is 25 gallons of gravy. So like a bathtub full of gravy," head chef Kevin Lawlin said.

Lawlin has been cooking for the event for around nine years.

"We show up here around 5:30am on Thanksgiving and cook all the food and we usually plate about 1,400 meals in about an hour and ten minutes," he said.

It's turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans - the complete Thanksgiving dinner all made and delivered by volunteers.

"We couldn't do it without the volunteers," Lawlin said.

"We have been abundantly blessed and we know some people haven't been. So we decided that we could help," first time volunteer Angie Luna said.

After the food is prepared and packaged, it's delivered to the less fortunate and the elderly.

The Caniglia's are a local family helping out this year for the first time delivering the packaged food.

"Since our older two are six and seven now we thought this would be something good for them to do," mom Jessica Caniglia said.

Jessica and her husband Ross went to multiple homes and made a lot of people happy, learning some life lessons along the way with their three young children.