Volunteers to pack 38,000 meal boxes for families this holiday
SELBYVILLE, DE. – Monday, November 18, 2024 — Mountaire Farms will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of their signature holiday giving event – Thanksgiving for Thousands – this weekend where hundreds of employees and volunteers will gather to pack 38,000 complete meals for families in need.
“We continue to be so blessed to be able to partner with our local communities to make this event possible,” said JR LaPearl, the Director of Mountaire Cares, the charitable giving program at Mountaire. “We couldn’t do this without our volunteers, and our partners in the faith-based and non-profit world. They are the real heroes in getting these boxes into the hands of families who need them.”
Events will be held on Saturday, November 23, at four locations:
- Selbyville, DE – 14,500 boxes
8 am to 1 pm*
55 Hosier St., Selbyville
(Warehouse across from our Selbyville plant)
- Lumber Bridge, NC – 10,000 boxes
7:45 am to Noon*
136 Chicken Plant Road, Lumber Bridge
(Employee Parking Lot)
- Siler City, NC – 9,000 boxes
7 am to 12:30 pm*
1151 East Raleigh St., Siler City
(Employee Parking Lot)
- Statesville, NC – 4,500 boxes
8 am to 11 am*
South River Baptist Church, 2659 S. Chipley Ford Rd., Statesville
*or until all boxes are packed and distributed
All boxes contain a plump Mountaire roaster chicken, canned corn, green beans, cranberry sauce, yams, stuffing, gravy, and a brownie mix. It’s designed to feed a family of four. Mountaire partners with Redner’s Markets, a grocery store, and longtime Mountaire customer, that provides all the shelf-stable food for the event.
All boxes have been reserved by hundreds of churches and non-profit organizations that distribute them that day to in the communities in and around Mountaire. On Delmarva, they get distributed in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. (No walk-up distributions at packing locations are offered.)
The program began in 1994 when a local church in Dagsboro, Del., could no longer accommodate the 100 hungry people it fed every holiday with the help of Mountaire chicken. They simply were running out of room. It was decided a boxed meal system could feed more families in need, and with Mountaire’s help, the Thanksgiving for Thousands program was born. That first year, 300 boxes were packed and distributed. And it has grown steadily ever since.
About Mountaire
Mountaire® is a registered trademark of Mountaire Corporation. Mountaire Corporation and its affiliates, Mountaire Farms Inc. and Mountaire Farms of Delaware, Inc. (collectively, “Mountaire”), are agricultural food production and processing companies providing work for almost 10,000 people at facilities in Arkansas, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.
