Fellowship Community Church (FCC) once again prepares “Operation Turkey Drop,” delivering Thanksgiving to the Roanoke Valley’s rescue workers on Thursday. This holiday season marks the 18th year the church and its volunteers provide emergency workers with nearly 800 meals to the Roanoke, Salem, and Botetourt communities.
Diana Morehart and Julie Summerville coordinate the annual “drop” from FCC’s Salem campus. This year, the church coordinates the “drop” with Wildwood Smokehouse in Roanoke.
In the past, before the pandemic, the church members would come together and send out full meals (turkey, mashed potatoes, pies, etc.) to all local first responders at the hospitals, jails, fire stations, and other localities as a “thank you.”
This year, the church sent out boxed meals to emergency rooms, dispatch offices, and sheriff’s offices throughout the week. On Thursday, the church serves smoked turkey and catered sides to the local fire stations.
Due to the current COVID restrictions and ones from the past two years, the church cannot provide homemade items put together by church members and friends like large trays of mashed potatoes and homemade pies.
“We coordinate it all,” Morehart said in a recent interview. “We have drivers that go out (to the fire stations). We have kids make cards and send those out as well. It’s a great day.”
FCC’s church participation is “huge,” according to Morehart.
“The response rate from the community is even bigger,” she continued. “They love it. They look forward to it every year. Our biggest disappointment in the past couple of years is that our folks can’t make things for (the emergency workers). They miss the homemade stuff but are very appreciative of what we can do for them.”
The late Bob Sink first developed the initiative in 2003. Due to his daughter having a disability, Sink’s family spent Thanksgiving visiting his daughter at a hospital. It all began with Sink and his family bringing Thanksgiving to his daughter and soon after getting food for the entire hospital. From there, the expansion to provide meals for all emergency workers in the area started and continues annually nearly two decades later.
“Operation Turkey Drop has served the men and women of Botetourt County’s Fire & EMS Department for almost five years now,” Botetourt Fire & EMS Chief Jason Ferguson said in a recent email. “It means so much that a group of people dedicate a good part of their Thanksgiving Day, that could be spent at home with family, to ensure that those serving the community are taken care of.
“While first responders, dispatchers, and healthcare workers are required to be on-duty and ready to take care of the community, the Fellowship Community Church members are voluntarily giving of their time in preparation and delivery of delicious food,” Ferguson said. “While COVID may have changed how they do it, we are forever grateful that this initiative remains in place. One of the many things we have to be thankful of in our communities throughout Southwest Virginia.”
For more information about Operation Turkey Drop, visit fcclife.org.
