Author: Jean Tucker

The holiday season at Second Harvest celebrates partnerships with caring donors who generously give food, funds and time throughout the year. In addition to food drives, promotional campaigns and community fundraisers, many organizations and individuals want to do more than just write a check; they want the hands-on experience of helping people facing hunger.

Our recent Thanksgiving turkey drives offered the perfect opportunity for sponsoring organizations to marry the two. Sponsors who provided financial support also enjoyed rolling up their sleeves to make the event successful, packing and distributing 13,500 complete holiday meal boxes to families served by our Pasco and Spokane hunger solution centers. 

Amazon has been a great partner of Second Harvest, through the Amazon Smile program and their support of our turkey drives. This year, Amazon provided a $20,000 matching sponsorship for Tom’s Turkey Drive in Spokane, which stretched the impact of community donations. A crew of Amazon volunteers loading Thanksgiving meal boxes into vehicles at the Spokane County Fairgrounds told us that the time flew by, and that it was meaningful for them to visit with neighbors as they received their food boxes.

Amazon’s support of our Mid-Columbia and Yakima Valley Turkey Drive again this year made a significant impact. Their “Golden Turkey” sponsorship helped provide 2,500 complete holiday meal boxes for families in the Tri-Cities and neighboring communities. There was much gratitude and a few tears from families receiving food, who said Thanksgiving would have been like any other day for them without the turkey drive.  

Second Harvest is honored that Amazon gives back to the communities in which they are located. Our local partnerships began several years ago when Amazon representatives proactively reached out to us as plans materialized for construction of fulfillment centers in Spokane and Pasco. They wanted to learn about the needs of our communities and how they could get involved in making a difference. 

Our turkey drives were the perfect fit, providing a meaningful way for Amazon to positively impact the community by providing food and hope to families facing hunger. “We are proud to partner with 2nd Harvest, because we believe no family should go without basic needs such as food,” said Dean Allsopp, manager of community engagement for Amazon. “At Amazon, we begin each day determined to make better, do better, and be better for the communities where our customers and employees live and work.”

Our thanks to amazing Amazon for their generous support during this holiday season. Cheers to our continuned partnership and shared impact in the new year!