They hoped for 600 turkeys.
But after a three-day community drive, Russell Rowland Inc. had a total of 801 turkeys, each of which will end up on a needy family’s Thanksgiving table in Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties.
“We are overwhelmed by the generosity of our community,” said Jackie Rowland, president and CEO of the company. “What started with just 26 turkeys has grown into something truly special because of this community’s commitment to taking care of our neighbors in need.
“Every single turkey represents a family gathering around the table for Thanksgiving, and that’s what this is all about ensuring that everyone in Northeast Florida can experience the warmth and joy of the holiday season,” she said. “We’re grateful to every person who donated, every organization that partnered with us and every volunteer who helped make this our most successful turkey drive yet.”
The Jacksonville structural engineering firm has led an annual Thanksgiving turkey drive since 2020. With federal food assistance benefits delayed or possibly not coming at all in November, this year’s turkeys will be vital for about 3,204 people.
“Every turkey that we’re able to donate feeds at least a family of four,” Rowland said. “This turkey drive resonates with the broader community because it brings together other local businesses for a shared purpose. … It is very special to provide food to families in need.”
One of the recipients this year is Gracie’s Kitchen in Yulee, which was founded in 2009 to feed the hungry.
“The American picture of Thanksgiving is a family sitting around the table with their turkey dinner. Our folks are living in their cars, going home to a sad trailer or eating on a picnic table outside our soup kitchen,” director Maryellen Crocker said.
‘We’re all in it together’
The Rowland drive was Nov. 18-20, with deliveries made the next day to 10 food banks and other nonprofits that distributed them to families.
The rising number of donated turkeys — the first year there were 26, the next year 75, then 142, then 258, and last year’s 506 almost doubling every year to the 801 for 2025 — is a shining example of the power of community, Rowland said.
The 2024 turkey drive team of Russell Rowland Inc., a Jacksonville structural engineering firm, poses with some of the 506 turkeys they collected for needy families’ Thanksgiving tables. This year they hope to collect 600.
“It’s showing … the network we have built. They have rallied around us,” she said. “Jacksonville is the biggest small town. We’re all in it together.”
The 2025’s drive’s “success is a testament to the power of collaboration,” Rowland said, citing partnerships with the Northeast Florida Builders Association and its Charitable Foundation, Thigpen Heating & Cooling, NexGen Roofing and MCG Homes.
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One of the drive’s most compelling partnerships is with NexGen Roofing. Last year, Rowland found out the company was donating all the Thanksgiving fixings to San Jose Elementary School families — all but the turkeys. So Rowland contributed the birds.
“That was the most rewarding,” she said. When the turkeys were delivered, “the families were literally lined up.”
Tradition and family
At San Jose Elementary School in 2024, a family gets a turkey and all the Thanksgiving fixings from NexGen Roofing staffers. The company holds an annual Thanksgiving meal giveaway, with turkeys donated by the Russell Rowland Inc. turkey drive.
The impetus for the drive came from the childhood of Rowland’s husband, Parker Rowland, the company’s chief financial officer. Every year, his family donated a turkey to the Mandarin Food Bank.
Mary Kaminski is co-director of the food bank, which opened in 1991 and is another of the Rowland drive’s recipients.
“So many young people who have donated of volunteered … have taken that sense of giving with them into adulthood,” she said. “When Parker Rowland played football at Mandarin High, he brought the team to the food bank to help unload a truck full of turkeys for us.
“The boys stretched from the truck to the freezer and formed a fire line to unload the turkeys. We called it the ‘turkey toss,'” she said.
This year’s Rowland donation “will make a huge difference to the food bank,” which hopes to give away at least 800Â turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas, Kaminski said. “We hope that’s enough with our increased numbers.”
Crocker of Gracie’s Kitchen’s anticipates giving out about 600 dinners on Thanksgiving and delivering dinner boxes to about 40 “shut-in’ families, she said.
“All of us are overwhelmed by the generosity of our community in general and Russell Rowland company in particular this Thanksgiving,” she said. “It is so humbling for me to see kindness in our kitchen with our volunteers and appreciation in our parking lot with our guests.”
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Other drive recipients are the Betty Griffin Center in St. Augustine, which serves victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse; Feeding Northeast Florida, a Jacksonville-based regional food bank; the Homeless Coalition of St. Johns County; Rethreaded in Jacksonville, which helps human trafficking survivors; Sanctuary on 8th Street, a youth afterschool program; Salvation Army of Northeast Florida, and the Shepherd’s Shelves food pantry at Shepherd of the Woods Lutheran Church in Jacksonville.
bcravey@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4109
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: How many turkeys can 1 firm collect? 801 if you’re Russell Rowland