An informal northwest Reading community group came together Saturday for its third annual Thanksgiving turkey giveaway.<\/p>\n
Ryan Bradley, the city\u2019s clean city coordinator and an organizer of the event, said the purpose of the effort was to support residents who might otherwise go without a Thanksgiving dinner.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s distribution was sponsored by Councilman Rafael Nunez, who represents District 5.<\/p>\n
It was supported by council members Jaime Baez Jr. and Melissa Ventura, state Rep. Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz, the Hispanic Center, Salvation Army, and I Stand, a local nonprofit assisting victims of violence and abuse.<\/p>\n
The Islamic Society of Berks County, 101 W. Windsor St., provided space for packing and distribution.<\/p>\n
During Monday night\u2019s council meeting, city officials praised the event and other weekend turkey giveaways.<\/p>\n
Council members commended the volunteers and partners who made the event possible.<\/p>\n
Ventura thanked her colleagues for their work to ensure families in need will have a Thanksgiving meal.<\/p>\n
Nunez noted how community members came together across neighborhoods for the various food distributions.<\/p>\n
With the help of dozens of volunteers, he said, more than 150 turkeys were distributed from Windsor and Front streets Saturday.<\/p>\n
Later that day, another 100 turkeys were handed out at the Reading Housing Authority\u2019s Glenside and Oakbrook communities, Council President Donna Reed noted.<\/p>\n
Reed thanked Mayor Eddie Moran and state Rep. Manny Guzman for their generous efforts in making those giveaways possible.<\/p>\n
The distributions were supported by businessman Leopoldo Sanchez, owner of Supernatural Produce, which has two locations in the city, Baez noted.<\/p>\n
Sanchez, though dressed in his business suit, rolled up his sleeves and pitched in to hand out the turkeys, Baez said.<\/p>\n
Baez, Reed and other council members thanked all those involved in supporting residents ahead of the holiday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An informal northwest Reading community group came together Saturday for its third annual Thanksgiving turkey giveaway. Ryan Bradley,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,857,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,706],"class_list":{"0":"post-44418","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-berks-county","9":"tag-essential-reading","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-reading","14":"tag-reading-city","15":"tag-reading-city-headlines","16":"tag-reading-city-news","17":"tag-top-stories-reg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44418","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=44418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}