Last week, dozens of volunteers from across Fallon gathered at their preferred pantries and community centers to serve and distribute hundreds of Thanksgiving meals. Meeting the ongoing food needs of low-income residents in Churchill County requires charities to prepare and fundraise year-round. However, the most intense period of work typically occurs during the holiday season, with efforts peaking on Monday, November 24th. On that day, a shipment of regional groceries and commodities arrived at New Frontier from the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, setting off a flurry of volunteer activity.
Volunteers spent several hours loading cars with fresh vegetables and canned goods, providing enough food for more than 400 people, according to New Frontier staff. As part of the distribution process, trucks delivered food from New Frontier to two other local pantries—Out of Egypt and the Wolf Center—for their weekly food distributions.
While people lined up for groceries that Monday morning at the Wolf Center’s warehouse, volunteers in the industrial kitchen next door were busy preparing Thanksgiving dinner. Among them were Doug and Britnee Prideaux, who worked together to debone chicken breasts and separate leg joints, enabling them to cook 20 turkeys efficiently on sheet pans. All the while, they played Christmas music recorded before their time, including “Last Christmas” by Wham!, a song older than the couple themselves. The turkeys were generously donated by New Millennium.
Unbeknownst to Doug and Britnee, their efforts contributed to the largest free community dinner in over a decade, according to Co-Director of Fallon Daily Bread and Board Chairman of Churchill Coalitio, Steve Russell. Typically, the Wolf Center serves turkey, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole to about 200 people on the Monday before Thanksgiving. However, this year, volunteers, including members of Boy Scout Troop 1776, served 235 people, setting a new record.
Doug and Britnee Prideaux’s commitment to helping others extended beyond the community dinner. In addition to Doug’s responsibilities as Outreach Coordinator for the Churchill Coalition, the couple organized a fundraiser, purchased groceries, and assembled Thanksgiving food boxes for 30 families. The boxes, distributed the day before Thanksgiving (November 23) at Wal-Mart, were made possible through a GoFundMe campaign that Britnee launched during the government shutdown—a time when many government workers and SNAP beneficiaries faced financial uncertainty. The couple, parents to a two-year-old, supplemented donations with their own funds, promoted the effort on social media, and responded to private requests from families in need. Each box included basic staples, meal starters, and hot chocolate. “We were in a position to help… donations came in at such a perfect time,” Doug reflected. “Huge thank you to anyone who donated to the GoFundMe!”
On Thanksgiving Day, volunteers continued their efforts by serving more than a hundred hot meals at the Wolf Center, during the regular Fallon Daily Bread Thursday dinner at Fallon’s American Legion Post 16, and by delivering meals to seniors with help from volunteers at the Pennington Life Center.
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