Austin's Operation Turkey prepares for its 26th year

Austin's Operation Turkey prepares for its 26th year

Thousands of volunteers are getting ready for one of Austin’s biggest Thanksgiving traditions, Operation Turkey.

AUSTIN, Texas - Thousands of volunteers are getting ready for one of Austin’s biggest Thanksgiving traditions. 

Operation Turkey has been serving meals to those in need for more than 25 years.

Operation Turkey in Austin

The backstory:

Operation Turkey, now in its 26th year, is entirely volunteer run. This year, they started with a big boost.

"We received a big donation from Butterball this year, 2,200 turkeys," Operation Turkey Executive Director Brian Tolbert said.

What is even bigger is the mission.

"Everybody that you see out here is out here on their own accord, wanting to make sure that the homeless and less fortunate in the Austin and surrounding areas have a meal on Thanksgiving," Tolbert said.

Last year they hit a milestone, serving their 500,000th meal. This year, they are adding to it.

"This year we're putting out 50,000 meals in four hours on Thanksgiving Day," Tolbert said.

Dig deeper:

It is a massive operation, and it’s rooted in a childhood memory of Tolbert, who grew up in Bastrop.

"My family, we grew our own garden, all the veggies and everything that we needed, we hunted, we fished, whatever it took to take care of our very large family. But we always had excess, so when we would have excess food, we would plate it up and my little five-year-old self would go out and walk the streets of Bastrop, Texas delivering these meals," Tolbert said.

He said Operation Turkey is a larger version of what his family always did, making sure no one goes without a Thanksgiving plate. The plate includes smoked turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, and pumpkin pie.

What they're saying:

"We show up early, we get the fire just right, they prep them, we put them on, and last year we used this little pit here and cooked 99 turkeys," volunteer Billy Helm said.

For volunteers like Helm, the work is about more than just cooking.

"The number one reason is that Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth, and everywhere we go we need to enhance life, and so we show up here so not only we can serve, but we can be a light to this community," Helm said.

Others, like Jeff Denton, said he comes back year after year to give back.

"The good Lord blesses me, and I'm just fortunate, so I just keep coming out and cooking for them," Denton said.

What you can do:

On Thursday morning, thousands of volunteers will meet at four locations in the Austin area to deliver the meals.

"It's just an amazing sight to see that everybody is getting to enjoy a Thanksgiving Day meal," Tolbert said.

Volunteers are still needed. Fill out the registration form here, or just show up to one of the four locations.