11/21/2024

Thanksgiving at Saint Louis University means preparing hundreds of meals for the St. Louis community. 

Turkeypalooza is SLU’s annual Thanksgiving food drive. Led by Campus Kitchen, a student-run organization that works to decrease food insecurity and waste in the communities surrounding SLU, the drive collects holiday food items that will be distributed to the St. Louis community.

“My favorite part of being involved in Turkeypalooza is seeing how many individuals in our community are inspired to help feed others, especially during this time,” said SLU senior and Campus Kitchen co-president Dani Doncevic. “Thanksgiving, to me, is about coming together as a community through food, and it very closely aligns with our mission as an organization. So, being able to unite our greater St. Louis community through this event is not only inspiring to me but instills a feeling of community within our greater city and organization.”

Organizers begin preparing for the drive in November. They make plans on when to start collecting donations and begin figuring out where the food will go. Organizers estimate 175 Campus Kitchen volunteers will have helped to prepare Thanksgiving meals ahead of the holiday. 

This year, organizers began collecting food in the kitchen in Reinert Hall in November.

The SLU community is encouraged to donate and organizers hosted two collection days for SLU donations were held a week before Thanksgiving. Doncevic said every year the community comes through with a lot of donations. She said some groups, like the Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Department, stand out. 

“The Molecular Microbiology & Immunology department at Saint Louis University School of Medicine has been very gracious and generous with their donations for many years,” Doncevic said. “A large portion of the donations for the event stems from (Office manager) Dawn Schwartz and her department’s donations as well as her willingness to coordinate with us.”

Once the shelves are stocked, the real work begins. The group shifts to the second phase of the project and starts cooking. 

“On Thursday night, we start to prepare vegetables —such as cutting onions, garlic, etc.,”  Doncevic said. ‘We do as much as we can to prepare for the weekend. I also use this time to begin recipe planning to see what recipes we can make with what we have received.”

If there are missing ingredients, the group will use some of the donation money to go shopping, Doncevic said. The weekend before Thanksgiving is all about cooking. 

“Volunteers and shift leaders will spend around 16 hours total cooking, baking, packing, and preparing meals and family baskets to distribute to our respective organizations,” Doncevic said. 

Each meal contains a protein source, a starch, a vegetable, and a dessert. 

“By cooking these meals we try to keep the Thanksgiving cheer,” Doncevic said. “Most of our meals contain turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, some kind of roasted vegetable, and a fall dessert  — with exceptions for our recipients with dietary restrictions.”

Last year the group made around 400 meals and made 30 family baskets that contained all the components to make a Thanksgiving meal. 

Once the bulk of cooking is done, the crew shifts into delivery mode. Organizers work with various organizations throughout St. Louis to figure out how to disperse the meals. When the cooking is finished, volunteers spend Monday and Tuesday delivering the meals. 

Volunteering for the 2025 version of Turkeypalooza is open to any students, faculty and staff who would like to participate. Information about Campus Kitchen, including a sign-up, social media pages, and more can be found online.