{"id":64686,"date":"2025-11-22T02:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T02:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/64686\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T02:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T02:49:08","slug":"sacramento-food-drives-see-unprecedented-demand-for-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/64686\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento food drives see unprecedented demand for Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tLess than a week before Thanksgiving, rising grocery costs and the impact of a government shutdown are prompting more families in Sacramento to seek help in preparing their holiday dinner, with local organizations and community members stepping up to provide food and support.&#8221;I got a turkey for one of my neighbors. I&#8217;m gonna try to make it,&#8221; said Sophia Thompson.She picked up free groceries at the Shakur Center on Broadway for her neighbors who don&#8217;t have a car. Her efforts are part of a larger community initiative to support those in need. The director of Joey&#8217;s Food Locker at Natomas High School, Osvaldo Ortiz, said this is the  busiest year yet.   &#8220;We&#8217;re seeing our largest distribution in our 10-year history here in Joey&#8217;s locker,&#8221; he said.  &#8220;I think we&#8217;re going to be eclipsing over 1,000 families.&#8221;Jordan McGowan, from the Shakur Center, noted that there have been longer lines lately.  &#8220;We feed people consistently as a part of our demonstration to show our love and commitment to the community and what we believe in,&#8221; McGowan said. The lines for Joey&#8217;s Food Locker are so long that traffic cops have been set up at busy intersections. Geofonee Stokes, a single mom, chose to walk in rather than wait in her car to feed her seven children and grandson. &#8220;I have four teenage boys and they like to eat. So this is so helpful and I can stretch it out,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Especially with them being out of school for a whole week. The struggle is really real.&#8221;Despite her challenges, Stokes expressed gratitude for the assistance.&#8221;Even though my situation isn&#8217;t  the best, there are people that are in worse situations than me,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I&#8217;m just grateful that I&#8217;m able to receive help, that they&#8217;re able to help, and that I&#8217;m still here because tomorrow isn&#8217;t promised.&#8221;Thompson summed up the community&#8217;s spirit.&#8221;I&#8217;m just trying to make a difference one person at a time,&#8221; Thompson said. As the trunk of a car slammed shut, a cheerful &#8220;Happy Thanksgiving&#8221; echoed, capturing the essence of the community&#8217;s efforts.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tSACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Less than a week before Thanksgiving, rising grocery costs and the impact of a government shutdown are prompting more families in Sacramento to seek help in preparing their holiday dinner, with local organizations and community members stepping up to provide food and support.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I got a turkey for one of my neighbors. I&#8217;m gonna try to make it,&#8221; said Sophia Thompson.<\/p>\n<p>She picked up free groceries at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.neighborprogram.org\/shakurcenter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Shakur Center<\/a> on Broadway for her neighbors who don&#8217;t have a car. Her efforts are part of a larger community initiative to support those in need.<\/p>\n<p> The director of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.natomasunified.org\/community\/joeys-food-locker\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Joey&#8217;s Food Locker<\/a> at Natomas High School, Osvaldo Ortiz, said this is the  busiest year yet.  <\/p>\n<p> &#8220;We&#8217;re seeing our largest distribution in our 10-year history here in Joey&#8217;s locker,&#8221; he said.  &#8220;I think we&#8217;re going to be eclipsing over 1,000 families.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Jordan McGowan, from the Shakur Center, noted that there have been longer lines lately. <\/p>\n<p> &#8220;We feed people consistently as a part of our demonstration to show our love and commitment to the community and what we believe in,&#8221; McGowan said. <\/p>\n<p>The lines for Joey&#8217;s Food Locker are so long that traffic cops have been set up at busy intersections. <\/p>\n<p>Geofonee Stokes, a single mom, chose to walk in rather than wait in her car to feed her seven children and grandson. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have four teenage boys and they like to eat. So this is so helpful and I can stretch it out,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Especially with them being out of school for a whole week. The struggle is really real.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite her challenges, Stokes expressed gratitude for the assistance.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Even though my situation isn&#8217;t  the best, there are people that are in worse situations than me,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I&#8217;m just grateful that I&#8217;m able to receive help, that they&#8217;re able to help, and that I&#8217;m still here because tomorrow isn&#8217;t promised.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Thompson summed up the community&#8217;s spirit.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m just trying to make a difference one person at a time,&#8221; Thompson said. <\/p>\n<p>As the trunk of a car slammed shut, a cheerful &#8220;Happy Thanksgiving&#8221; echoed, capturing the essence of the community&#8217;s efforts.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" aria-describedby=\"sk-tooltip-4585\">See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | <a target=\"_blank\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/article\/get-kcra-news-on-the-go-download\/44039145\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/article\/get-kcra-news-on-the-go-download\/44039145\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Download our app<\/a> | <a target=\"_blank\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/subscribe\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/subscribe\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | <a target=\"_blank\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@KCRA\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@KCRA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Less than a week before Thanksgiving, rising grocery costs and the impact of a government shutdown are prompting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[38821,3400,6103,38822,121,123,122,38823,15398],"class_list":["post-64686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-food-drives","tag-food-insecurity","tag-hunger","tag-joeys-food-locker","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-shakur-center","tag-thanksgiving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}