AKRON — This year families might pay more for their Thanksgiving dinner.
The price per pound of an eight to 16 pound turkey is $1.99, up from $1.15 last year.
Father Dean Kokanos, the parish priest at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Akron, is hoping to help hundreds of families this Thanksgiving by hosting the church’s first turkey dinner distribution.
“As Christians, we are called to feed people who need to be fed,” Kokanos said. “Thanksgiving is a time of year when everyone wants food. Food is love for so many people, so our goal is to share that love with as many families as we can with our Thanksgiving meal.”
The church does monthly food distributions, and they have seen the need for them grow significantly.
“We have seen a steady uptick over the last several months of the number of people who come to our monthly food pantry,” Kokanos said.
The church is hoping to feed around 1,000 people this Thanksgiving, and they are relying on donations to help make this happen.
“We have a partnership with the Akron-Canton Foodbank. We source things from different retail places, we talk to wholesale places,” he said. “We do whatever we need to do to get as much food as we can for as little money as we can, so we can give away more and more.”
Kokanos encourages everyone to come to the church and get a free turkey dinner at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at 129 South Union St. in Akron.
