National City resident Lupe Birchfield said she has been homeless for nearly two years.
She depends on her daughter, who works two jobs, for financial assistance, but said they still have a hard time making ends meet because her daughter works minimum wage jobs.
Birchfield said she didn’t think her family was going to have a Thanksgiving meal this year because she could not afford one.
“Right now, we’re homeless,” she said. “We’re living out of my car and we didn’t have anything.”
That was until she was notified by the National School District that her grandson was selected to be one of 500 families that would receive a free frozen turkey at National City Mayor Ron Morrison’s 10th annual turkey giveaway.
Birchfield said she’s thankful for the free turkey as she looks forward to also celebrating another year of life.
“’It’s also my birthday on Thursday, Thanksgiving day,” she said holding back tears.
This year’s turkey giveaway was held Tuesday morning at National City’s Dickinson Farm.
Morrison worked in conjunction with the elementary, middle, high school and junior college school districts in identifying families in special need. Those families had been preselected and notified they would receive a free frozen turkey.
Members of the U.S. Navy also were selected to receive a turkey.
Chief Petty Officer Carlos Morge Serrano said the free turkey is a financial relief because he will be feeding more people than just his own family.
“This is great,” he said. “I open my house for junior sailors because they don’t have family locally so they come to my house to eat.”
Esperanza Leon, 77, was first in line to receive a free turkey. She got in line two hours before the start of the event with her grandchild. She said she was thankful to Morrison for holding this event because there are many people in National City who could use a free turkey.
When Morrison first held the event 10 years ago they only gave out 30 turkeys.
Every year since, he said, the number has increased. Morrison said initially they had planned to give away 500 turkeys this year, but in the last few days they have received several more turkey donations from sponsors and they distributed more than 600 turkeys.
“These are the kind of things that make such a huge difference (in a community),” Morrison said. “And these things really make us greatful for what we have and thankful for the opportunity to help other people.”
