Safe Children Coalition Provides 450 Turkey Meals to Families in Need

November 22, 2023 – Sarasota

On November 18, Safe Children Coalition (SCC) provided 450 full Thanksgiving meals to families in need through a drive-thru event at its main office in north Sarasota. Eligible recipient families were those who are currently being served through SCC programs such as Achievers, Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY), Schoolhouse Link, and the Youth Shelter as well as other partnering agencies that serve low-income families.

This is the 22nd year that SCC has distributed Thanksgiving meals to those in need, thanks to generous community donations – a tradition that began as a community service project for the teens in the Achievers program to give back to the community. Families received a turkey large enough for a family of eight, vegetables, side dishes and pie. The meals were provided by Publix, which offers the food at a discounted cost in support of the effort.

Over the past 22 years, nearly 6,000 Thanksgiving meals have been provided to families in need. Special thank-yous are in order for Sarasota lawyer and longtime turkey drive sponsor Dan Dannheisser for – as he has each and every year – spearheading the fundraising campaign and personally funding numerous meals, and to the SCC Achievers students, who helped to distribute the food. 

Safe Children Coalition is also grateful to Laura Strub-Potter, president of Construction Supply of Southwest Florida, Inc., which continued its longtime tradition of providing a truck to deliver the food to the distribution site. Strub-Potter has been involved with the turkey distribution effort since its inception.

According to the USDA, in 2022, more than 44 million people – including 7.3 million children – in the U.S. were food insecure. The pandemic, surging costs of living and recent hurricanes have only worsened the hunger crisis for families who were already at risk. Distributing Thanksgiving meals is just one of the many ways SCC provides crucial support for families in need. 

For more about Safe Children Coalition, visit sccfl.org.