Food bank faces shortage of holiday turkeys

The Flathead Food Bank will start distributing Thanksgiving meals to families on Monday, but right now many of those dinners are missing a crucial component: the turkey.

More than 900 families across the food bank’s five-pantry network — in Kalispell, Bigfork, Evergreen, Marion and Martin City — have signed up to receive Thanksgiving meals, said Lori Botkin, executive director of the Flathead Food Bank.

There are 750 families signed up in Kalispell alone.

But as of Tuesday morning, the food bank only had 279 turkeys for its Thanksgiving meals.

There is a Plan B, in case the gobblers don’t come through, but Botkin hopes to avoid turning to other poultry.

“Unfortunately we have about 200 chickens; we’re going to end up using those at this point. We have smaller turkey breasts and roasts that we’re going to use,” she said. “We don’t want to do that, but that’s our option.”

All the other trimmings are in place, Botkin said.

“We’ve got all the rest. We just need turkeys,” she said.

Turkeys may be dropped off at the food bank’s Kalispell location in the Gateway Community Center (the former Gateway West Mall). The food bank is open from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. today, from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday and from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday.

For further information, call the food bank at 752-3663.