(BUFFALO) - Thousands of dollars in food and gift certificates that have been donated by Buffalo Teachers Federation (BTF) Members will be distributed on Tuesday (November 21st) to more than 200 needy families throughout the Buffalo area through several charitable and non-profit groups in an effort to “make sure those families enjoy a ‘meal of thanks’ on Thanksgiving Day,” BTF President Phil Rumore announced.

The food items collected by Buffalo Teachers have been packed into 200 shopping bags that sit atop a massive and wide conference room table inside BTF Headquarters.  They contain a variety of items purchased from Union-represented Tops Supermarkets, which worked in conjunction with the BTF on this annual Thanksgiving Food Drive.  Each bag contains two cans of corn, green beans, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, a package of dinner rolls, a bag of stuffing mix and a $10 gift card for purchase of a turkey.

“As we do each year, this ‘bounty of food’ was donated by Buffalo Teachers and students who ‘want to do their part to make sure’ families, ‘who might otherwise go without,’ will ‘enjoy’ their Thanksgiving Day meal,” said Rumore (Pictured Above/WNYLaborToday.com File Photo).  “This is our twenty-first annual Thanksgiving food drive where canned and packaged goods and monetary donations were made by Buffalo Teachers.  Since we first started this effort, more than three thousand families have ‘benefited’ from the BTF Thanksgiving Food Drive.  This is a ‘wonderful way for all of us to give thanks for what we have.’  After all, isn’t that what Thanksgiving is all about?”

The BTF Thanksgiving Day meal donations will be distributed to families through the following local charitable and non-profit groups: The City Mission; The Community Action Organization; Concerned Ecumenical Ministries; The Gloria Parks Community Center; Native American Community Services; WHRD (Women for Human Rights & Dignity; and the Project JOY House of Prayer, Praise & Worship.