Two-day food drive underway at Big Y in Norwich

20th annual event will help stock food center for holidays and winter season

Norwich — Debbie Ayers of Norwich needed to go to Big Y for one item, a jar of peanut butter. She left with a cartful of groceries, including a 10-pound turkey.

Many shoppers probably have done the same, but for Ayers, she had no intention of bringing the food home for her family. She stopped at the tent outside the store and unloaded her cart at the 20th annual Thames Valley Council for Community Action food drive to supply the Gemma E. Moran United Way/Labor Food Center in New London. The two-day food drive was scheduled to run all day and night Thursday until 7:30 p.m. today at the Big Y Supermarket, Route 82, Norwich.

The agency hopes to collect 10,000 pounds of food at this year’s event.

“I always come down,” Ayers said after her donation weighed in at over 30 pounds. “I think this is a great thing.”

Ayers said 22 years ago, she abruptly left her abusive husband with her then 14-year-old daughter. They drove away not knowing where they would go or how they would support themselves. They relied on friends for everything from donated furniture to food and staples.

“So I know what it’s like to be homeless,” she said. “I know what it’s like to have nothing. I don’t, to this day, know how we did it.”

WCTY- 97- 7 FM broadcasts live until 10 p.m. on the first day of the drive, resuming 6 a.m. today and will run through 7:30 this evening. The hours of the drive were extended by 90 minutes, thanks to business sponsors and donors, said Megan Brown, TVCCA senior director of marketing and development.

Visitors to the tent, whether they come to donate or just to greet radio on-air personalities, can enter a raffle to win tickets to a Little Big Town concert in February at Mohegan Sun Casino.

Overnight, a security guard was to be stationed at the tent and the Big Y tractor trailer was to remain open for overnight donations.

WCTY announcers read from the list of requested food items throughout the broadcast.

For the holidays, the drive is seeking the makings for Thanksgiving dinners: frozen turkeys ( to be stored in the Big Y freezer), boxed stuffing, cranberry sauce, boxed mashed potatoes and canned vegetables.

Everyday food items sought include: pasta, soup and broth, brown or white rice, canned fish and meat, peanut butter, cereal and oatmeal.

The tent also has a jar for cash donations. Cash donations will go into TVCCA’s emergency client fund to help with one- time emergencies such as car repairs or dental work, “things not covered by other means,” Brown said.

TVCCA Executive Director Deborah Monahan said donations of any amount are welcome. One woman put $10 into the jar Thursday morning.

“I told her ‘You might have just helped someone pay for a prescription,’” Monahan said.

The drive has overall goals of collecting 10,000 pounds of food and $4,000 in cash. Many local businesses run their own collections and bring their items to the Big Y food drive. Core Plus Federal Credit Union brought its collection Thursday morning. Dime Bank, Norwich Public Utilities and several other businesses and civic groups are expected today. A local motorcycle group usually comes close to closing time with a big donation, said Dave Elder, program director at WCTY.

One man dropped off a cartful of frozen turkeys, weighing a collective 159 pounds.

“It really is a community drive,” Elder said.