Makenzie Lane of Oxford packed Thanksgiving meals for local residents in need during the 27th Annual Alvernia University Turkey Drive event held at the Tom and Helen Flynn PLEX.

"We were very fortunate and blessed to be able to host our 37th Turkey Drive for families in the Reading community," said Abby Canela, the Alvernia University director of mission and ministry. “The volunteers walked in the footsteps of Saint Francis and Saint Clare, putting others before themselves and working together to bring joy to the families we serve.”

The event came together with the help of over 40 student volunteers, faculty, and staff to provide 150 Thanksgiving meal bags filled with canned goods, pie crusts, mashed potatoes, and other food items to those in need in the Reading area for the Thanksgiving season. Helping Harvest also donated a turkey for each meal bag. In addition, over $3500 was raised to help fill these bags with essentials, to be donated to the Kennedy House, a local food bank that has partnered with Alvernia for the Turkey Drive since its inception.

"Volunteering at the Turkey Drive was an amazing experience," said student activities graduate assistant Asher Smith. “At Alvernia, one of the core values that we are taught is service, and while it is one thing to read about all of the service opportunities that Alvernia presents, it is another thing entirely to experience those opportunities. It was impressive to see various students, staff, and faculty of the Alvernia community come together and serve in an efficient manner for a shared common goal.”

The Turkey Drive, founded in 1987, began by just feeding a few local families in need before growing to what it is now. Polly Mathys, a longtime member of the Alvernia community, former faculty member and founder of the Turkey Drive, even returned this year to help. The expansion over the years has resulted in many student volunteers, who now consider the Turkey Drive a university tradition that represents the university's Franciscan core values.

“One of the highlights of the experience was hearing Polly's mission moment, where she reminded us to pack the canned goods with intention-thinking about the families we were helping, rather than doing it mindlessly," said senior finance and economics major Teresa Keithley. “Helping at the local level feels especially important, as it allows us to make a direct impact on the people around us.”

Alvernia University is a Catholic comprehensive university with a liberal arts foundation founded by the Bernardine Franciscan Sisters in 1958. The university serves over 3,000 students in Reading, Pottsville and Philadelphia with a unique blend of rigorous liberal arts education, strong technical training in many high demand majors, ever-expanding experiential learning opportunities through study abroad and internship experiences and community engagement through its Franciscan-based community service model.