{"id":314569,"date":"2026-10-26T14:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T14:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/314569\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T14:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T14:38:07","slug":"food-pantry-in-bethlehem-aims-to-collect-2500-turkeys-to-give-to-those-in-need-this-holiday-season-bethlehem-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/314569\/","title":{"rendered":"Food pantry in Bethlehem aims to collect 2500 turkeys to give to those in need this holiday season | Bethlehem Area"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BETHLEHEM, Pa. &#8211; Thanksgiving is just one month away and while many families are starting to plan their holiday meals, food pantries are already preparing for a busy season.<\/p>\n<p>69 News Reporter Sydney Kay has more on how you can help one pantry in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n<p>John Marc Rittle, Executive Director of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/newbethany.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">New Bethany<\/a>, said his organization helps those who are homeless as well as low-income people in the Lehigh Valley by providing free food and housing.<\/p>\n<p>The center is open eight hours a day.<\/p>\n<p>Rittle said the holidays are a very busy time for New Bethany. The organization has a goal for Thanksgiving: to collect 2500 turkeys to give to those in need.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, New Bethany brought in 2200 turkeys.<\/p>\n<p>The group collects the turkeys at the Lehigh Valley IronPigs stadium the Friday before Thanksgiving. People can drive into the stadium and drop off a frozen turkey, Rittle said.<\/p>\n<p>He said at least 20 families a day come through the pantry each day around the holidays.<\/p>\n<p>Rittle said the group relies on donations from the community. A box truck from a farm based out of Reading delivers food to the pantry every Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Volunteers drive to Wegmans several times a week, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\nCopyright 2026 Maranatha Broadcasting Co., Inc.. All Rights Reserved.\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. &#8211; Thanksgiving is just one month away and while many families are starting to plan their&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,5722,157,1183,1274,128289],"class_list":["post-314569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-food-pantry","tag-lehigh-valley","tag-new-bethany","tag-thanksgiving","tag-turkey-drive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}