Wanted: Kind feasts for Thanksgiving recipients who need one

Bring your Thanksgiving turkey or chicken to Lighthouse Mission this week and the beginning of next week. Staff will welcome them. They’ll store the perishables in the walk-in freezers. They’ll also collect nonperishable items to accompany dinner, like canned vegetables, gravy, cranberry sauce and boxed mashed potatoes. Donors can walk in, masks on, Monday to Saturday, to the Lighthouse Mission headquarters from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 1543 Montauk Highway in Bellport. If you’re worried about COVID, follow the signs, swing your car out back, and honk.

Staff will come out to haul in your kind feast.

This year, Lighthouse Mission is handing out Thanksgiving a week before the holiday, said pastor Jim Ryan.

“Last month we had 9,060 people coming to receive food,” Ryan said. “With Thanksgiving, it will escalate.”

There are options for donors. For those who don’t want to shop, but want to give, visit lighthousegive.com.

“If we get enough money to buy what we need, we can buy in bulk and get a discount,” Ryan said.

There’s also another option.

“We created a list on Amazon where donors can buy things,” Ryan said. “They can buy stuffing, canned vegetables [and] other items, and we have a nice list at lighthousethanksgiving.com where it can be shipped directly to us. If they have an Amazon Prime account, it can ship free.”

Ryan’s staff and volunteers are at 10 weekly distribution sites. “If you go to lioutreaches.com, it will show you all the places and times we distribute food,” Ryan said. “If you want to volunteer, you can go to the site and show up.”