14 | November/December 2019
G I V I N G
Thanksgiving dinner for the
needy, served with love
BY CATHERINE PRITCHARD | PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATTHEW WONDERLY
V
enassia Gunter won't sit down to a traditional
turkey dinner on anksgiving Day.
She'll be far too busy making sure
thousands of such dinners are delivered to
people in need all around Fayetteville.
Gunter leads the local chapter of Operation Turkey, an
all-volunteer organization that provides meals, clothing
and toiletries on anksgiving Day to the homeless and less
fortunate in 22 communities in seven states.
e organization is rooted in one man's actions 19 years
ago. On anksgiving Day in 2000, aer dinner with
friends, Richard Bagdonas was driving to his home with a
plateful of leovers. On his way, he saw a homeless man in a
wheelchair and decided to give the meal to him instead.
Over the next few years, Bagdonas and some friends gave
away anksgiving meals, coats and blankets to homeless
people in their city in Texas and they began calling their
efforts Operation Turkey. e organization grew and took
shape and was embraced by people in other communities,
who started their own Operation Turkey efforts.
Last year, Operation Turkey chapters delivered 60,000
meals in seven states, including more than 8,000 in the
Cumberland and Hoke county areas.
e Fayetteville organization made the latter meals
and also cooked and took about 800 turkey dinners to the
Grion Mission Ministries in Grion, a small community
