Turkey giveaway kicks off Thanksgiving week

Destiny Family Christian Center gives out turkeys and ingredients before every Thanksgiving
This year they helped 520 families.

Starting at six am hundreds of people started lining up outside Destiny Church in Northeast El Paso, al waiting for their Thanksgiving bags.

The line was so long in the cold morning, organizers had to start moving them through an hour early.

“We start planning this months in advance. We have to start getting prepared, getting bags, we have sponsors, people like Hoy Fox Lexus who got us all the bags, we have partners like Operation Hope,” said Trisha Thorton with Destiny Family Christian Center.

The families had registered with the church earlier this week, to make sure they could get enough for everyone that needed help

“I have everything I need for Thanksgiving, corn, turkey, potatoes and the rest. We’re ready for Thanksgiving Day,” said Martha melendez, who is cooking for 12 people.

It’s all part of helping their community, organizers said, and making sure that families in El Paso could concentrate on enjoying the holidays with their families.

“This holiday is really important for a lot of people, and I think it becomes a really stressful part of the year,” Thorton said.

If you’d like to help next year you can start asking about volunteering around September.