LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – God’s Pantry Food Bank has been helping families celebrate Thanksgiving together for three decades. Saturday, hundreds of volunteers helped continue the tradition by delivering Thanksgiving meal boxes.

In total, more than 7,000 Kentucky families will have access to a home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner thanks to God’s Pantry Food Bank.

“Lots of families in our community are struggling to provide for their families like the cost of groceries has significantly gone up. The cost of everything has gone up, and so lots of times those families have to make those decisions: do I pay for my medical bills or do I pay for groceries or do I pay my electricity bill?” said God’s Pantry Food Bank Fayette County Program Manager, Mary Alice Daniels.

God’s Pantry and hundreds of volunteers are distributing Thanksgiving meal boxes to families experiencing food insecurity across Central and Eastern Kentucky. On Saturday, more than 800 of the meal boxes were picked up and delivered to every zip code within Fayette County.

“We know hunger is in every zip code, so each year, we are delivering to everywhere in Lexington,” said Daniels.

The rest of the meal boxes will be distributed next week. Each one contains enough food to prepare a Thanksgiving meal for a family of eight, including a turkey. The boxes were hand-packed by God’s Pantry volunteers.

“Every year, we have our community just that comes through for us. They care about our neighbors that are experiencing hunger, and they make it a point to really come out all month of November to pack boxes to deliver boxes to help our drive-through distributions,” said Daniels.

All of this year’s Thanksgiving meal boxes are spoken for. If you’re facing food insecurity and need help, visit God’s Pantry’s website by clicking here.

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