Mountaire program set for meals distribution

SILER CITY – It’s the 30th anniversary of Mountaire Farms’ Thanksgiving for Thousands program.

Volunteers and employees will pack 38,000 meals for families in need.

Siler City is one of Saturday’s four locations. The other sites are Lumber Bridge and Statesville in North Carolina in addition to Selbyville, Del.

“We continue to be so blessed to be able to partner with our local communities to make this event possible,” said JR LaPearl, director of Mountaire Cares, the charitable giving program at Mountaire. “We couldn’t do this without our volunteers, and our partners in the faith-based and non-profit world. They are the real heroes in getting these boxes into the hands of families who need them.”

In Siler City, 9,000 boxes will be distributed from the employee parking lot off East Raleigh Street. The time frame is from 7 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (or until all boxes are packed and distributed).

Boxes contain a Mountaire roaster chicken, canned corn, green beans, cranberry sauce, yams, stuffing, gravy, and a brownie mix. It’s designed to feed a family of four, according to information from Mountaire.

Mountaire partners with Redner’s Markets, a grocery store, and longtime Mountaire customer, that provides all the shelf-stable food for the event.

All boxes have been reserved by hundreds of churches and non-profit organizations that distribute them that day in the communities in and around Mountaire. No walk-up distributions at packing locations are offered.

The program began in 1994 when a local church in Dagsboro, Del., could no longer accommodate the 100 hungry people it fed every holiday with the help of Mountaire chicken.