CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Three hundred senior citizens in Beverly, Morgan Park and Mount Greenwood are receiving Thanksgiving meals this evening courtesy of students from the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences.
According to principal Bill Hooks, students at the Chicago Ag School raised 19 turkeys from chicks to adulthood. One was donated and the other 18 were processed and roasted for meals for senior citizens in the community.
“We raise pumpkins and corn in our fields and students harvest them, freeze them and then they make the pumpkin pies and cornbread from that,” Hooks told WBBM Newsradio.
Hooks said the turkeys are processed at a USDA-approved facility.
“This year, they grew them so quickly, I want to say it might have been the end of September when we brought the turkeys in to get processed. Otherwise, if they got too big, we wouldn’t be able to fit them in our ovens,” he said.
Chefs from area restaurants provided stuffing and other dishes and students put together the individual meals to be delivered.
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Diego Burgos, the executive chef at Smith Village retirement home, was helping students as they cut up turkeys to be separated for the meals.
“It’s truly farm-to-table where they’re raising the turkeys here, the last agricultural school in Chicago. I think it’s extremely important that we keep this program going,” Burgos told WBBM Newsradio.
Elesha Blaney, a 17-year old senior, was among those separating turkey meat from the bone.
“I really do love it because, it’s like, it makes me feel good that I’m making somebody else feel good,” Blaney said.
Another senior, Sydney Dix, 17, felt the same way.
“I’m happy that I’m taking part in this because not everyone, not all the students are doing this and I feel it’s kind of an honor and also this is for the community so I feel like I’m helping out,” Dix said.
This is the ninth year meals were provided for seniors. It’s the second year in a row that meals had to be delivered because of the pandemic.
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Ald. Matt O’Shea of the 19th Ward said he hopes the COVID-19 pandemic is in the rear-view mirror in time for next year’s event.
“Normally, we would have several hundred people here in the Ag School gymnasium. Very festive occasion. Bringing our seniors together. The kids still wanted to do this and we still wanted to partner with them so, we’ll take it out on the road again,” O’Shea said.
Hooks said the event began less than 10 years ago when students expressed an interest in raising turkeys. He told them they needed an “end game,” a reason for raising them. The next day, he said, they came back with three ideas.
“The first student said, ‘Let’s have an auction.’ Process turkeys, freeze them and have an auction and use it as a fundraiser for the FFA. The next student said, ‘You know what we can do is process them and donate them to the Greater Chicago Food Depository. The third student said, ‘Let’s have a Thanksgiving dinner,’” Hooks said.
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