Thankful to Help this Thanksgiving Season

This year’s Operation Gobble Gobble was a little more difficult to put together than in year’s past. My staff had to work a lot harder to find community partners and businesses that were able to donate turkeys, fixings and other items for our annual event. In this terrible economy, some businesses simply could not afford to help. But on the other side of that, we found that people, many who’ve lost their jobs, needed the help this year more than ever. We’ll we pulled it off (thanks Food 4 Less and everybody else) and were able to able to give away about 5,000 turkeys in Boyle Heights and El Sereno. At our El Sereno event we brought residents from Eagle Rock and Highland Park in on buses. As a kid, my family sometimes depended on events like this to help make ends meet. I’ve stood in lines waiting to get free food. That’s why it’s important for me to make it a fun event and not just a give away. We had photographers taking holiday pictures with families and their children, so they’d have a nice memento. My feeling is we’re all in this together, and we need to take care of one another as much as we can. Happy Thanksgiving, every one.