For Immediate Release
June 25, 2019

A Recipe for Giving: Suffolk Culinary Celebrates 10th Year Creating Sumptuous Thanksgiving Dinners for Community

Thanksgiving 2017

Suffolk County Community College’s Culinary Arts program students will prepare about 200 Thanksgiving dinners for Community Action Southold Town’s (CAST) Greenport food pantry and Clinton Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church in what has become an annual and celebratory undertaking for the college’s culinary program and its students and faculty.

This year’s happy undertaking marks the tenth year that more than three dozen of the college’s culinary students and faculty have happily volunteered their culinary expertise to execute the holiday cooking with military-like precision for neighbors in the community.

The dinner preparation will take place on Wednesday, November 21, 2018 beginning at 9 a.m. at the Suffolk County Community College Culinary Arts & Hospitality Center, 20 East Main St., Riverhead, NY 11901. Meal packaging will begin at approximately 1 p.m.

"We celebrate Thanksgiving by cooking and sharing our favorite foods, being with the ones we love and giving thanks for all that we have. Our college and students, faculty and staff enjoy giving back to our community. A Happy Thanksgiving to all!" said Suffolk County Community College President Dr. Shaun L. McKay.

This is the second year Suffolk's Culinary program has worked with CAST, a not-for-profit that has worked in Southold Town since 1965 to help low-income residents meet basic needs in the areas of nutrition, employment, energy, and education. CAST exists as a safety net for Southold Town families from Laurel to Orient Point, including Fisher’s Island. The majority of CAST’s funding comes from the generosity of the community.

Students and faculty chefs from the college’s culinary program will prepare and individually package sumptuous Thanksgiving meals whose ingredients are provided by CAST, including more than 20 turkeys; 100 pounds of mashed potatoes; 50 pounds of sweet potatoes; 80 pounds of stuffing; 25 pounds of assorted vegetables and 20 each of apple and pumpkin pies. And, of course, gravy – more than 5 gallons of it!