Giveaway sends 530 families home with turkeys

A drive-thru giveaway over the weekend saw 530 families in need bring home a turkey for Thanksgiving.

Three local organizations, the Clarence E. Phillips Ascend Foundation, Oakland Livingston Human Service Agency (OLSHA) and CNS Healthcare, teamed up for the event on Saturday in Pontiac. The turkeys were sourced through the Waterford Meijer on Highland Road.

Kaino Phillips, founder of the Ascend Foundation, said the event came together in less than a week after he found out several long- standing Thanksgiving food giveaways had been cancelled this year due to the pandemic.

“To some people, a turkey could be the smallest thing in the world, but to others, it means so much,” Phillips said. “We had people in tears taking these turkeys, telling us we had no idea what it meant to their family. It’s moments like those that re- establish why people should be thankful for everything they have.”

In December, the Ascend Foundation will host its annual holiday adoptions and community feeding efforts. Usually, that consists of a six-prong program and a day-long volunteer effort to pack 3,000 meals. Some of the nonprofit’s annual offerings for the community will look different this year in an effort to lower the amount of volunteers needed and decrease potential spread of the coronavirus.

A Pontiac day- care center, and three southeast Michigan homeless shelters will be adopted for the holidays. Several dinners, including one for the clients at the Lighthouse transitional supportive housing program, are also planned for some of the county’s most vulnerable populations. Thirty Pontiac-area families will also be adopted for the holidays.