For Immediate Release
November 6, 2019

Suffolk Celebrates 11th Year Creating Sumptuous Thanksgiving Dinners for Community

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

How do you help feed a community for Thanksgiving?

Twenty turkeys, 100 pounds of mashed potatoes, 50 pounds of sweet potatoes, 80 pounds of stuffing and 25 pounds of assorted vegetables …  and, of course, gravy – more than 5 gallons of it!

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

This year’s happy undertaking marks the eleventh year that dozens of the college’s culinary students and faculty will happily volunteer their culinary expertise to execute the holiday cooking with military-like precision for neighbors in the community.

The dinner preparation will be on Wednesday, November 27, 2019 beginning at 8 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 12:30 p.m. Note that the turkeys are roasted the day before and carved the day of dinner preparation.

This is the third 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 from the culinary and baking, hospitality, dietetic technician and licensed practical nursing programs, will join faculty chefs, college staff and administrators and community volunteers to prepare and individually package sumptuous Thanksgiving meals whose ingredients are provided by CAST.