Senator Parker Spreads Holiday Cheer and Urges New Yorkers to Volunteer This Thanksgiving

Brooklyn, NY- With devastating cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) affecting families only a week before Thanksgiving, Senator Kevin Parker distributed almost one hundred-plus free turkeys at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church on Wednesday, November 20, 2013. Dozens of local community-based organizations, faith-based institutions and non-profit charities who are helping feed the hungry received their turkeys from the Senator so they might prepare traditional dinners to those less fortunate in their respective constituencies. Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, Renaissance Home Health Care, Jetro Cash and Carry, and Key Food Supermarket were proud sponsors of this year’s event.

“No one should go hungry, and particularly not on Thanksgiving when we are supposed to be celebrating America’s bounty with our families,” Senator Parker said. "Congress’s decision to introduce legislation further cutting SNAP (formerly Food Stamps), and Speaker Boehner’s refusal to restore SNAP, means that many New Yorkers will have only $1.42 a day worth of food to feed their families this holiday. That is why I am particularly proud of the community-oriented organizations that have partnered with me to distribute what could possibly be the only semblance of Thanksgiving for some of our community’s neediest families.” Senator Parker continued.

With the donations received from Senator Parker’s free turkey giveaway and other contributions of dinner fixings, the community-based organizations’ effort will likely provide food for more than 1,500 meals to Brooklynites. Lenox Road Baptist Church, Ocean Avenue Tenants Association, and Avenue D Merchants Association are among the many organizations that hold annual Thanksgiving dinners that are free to the public, and staffed by volunteers and donors dedicated to providing our neighborhoods’ less fortunate with a hot, festive meal. “This year, I urge all New Yorkers to extend a hand to those less fortunate as we celebrate the holiday and give thanks,” concluded the Senator.

To find local opportunities to volunteer this Thanksgiving in New York City, please visit:

http://volunteer.foodbanknyc.org/

http://www.cityharvest.org/volunteer

http://www.mowaa.org/Page.aspx?pid=253

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About Senator Kevin Parker

Senator Kevin S. Parker is intimately familiar with the needs of his ethnically diverse Brooklyn community that consists of 318,000 constituents in Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood, Ditmas Park, Kensington, Windsor Terrace, and Park Slope. He is the Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee and the Committee on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, Assistant Democratic Leader for Intergovernmental Affairs, and Chair of the Democratic Task Force on New Americans.