About The Longmont Turkey Turnout

We started the Turkey Turnout in 2009 as a way to do something around Thanksgiving with our young kids.  That first year we talked to the local grocery stores, got 500 bags, and put them out around Old Town Longmont.  The response the  following Saturday was greater than we could imagine - collecting almost 1,300 pounds of food for the OUR Center.  Wow.  We were humbled by the generous response, and learned from the OUR Center Emergency Food Pantry it was like covering a day of their needs.  We knew we could do more.

The format is different than other food drives:  First, we don't knock on doors.  We don't know from neighbor to neighbor who needs help.  As we learned through the years, many of those that may be food insecure may not look that way to us from the outside.  Second, We get a bag to everyone with the Turkey Turnout's info.  This helps us get more donations, sure, but also helps our volunteers to identify donations on Collection Day.  Most bags collected will be reused for another year.  A bag gets used as many as four times!

In 2011, we recruited our son's Cub Scout Pack (59) and all the wonderful families the next year, as well as a handful of neighbors.  We collected about double the amount of food.  Hearing the Scouts excited about helping out, the program continued year after year.  In 2013, bikes were added to help Bicycle Longmont's Kids Holiday Bike Program, and in 2014, at the request of the OUR Center, clothing donations were added.  More organizations joined in to help, such as the Girl Scouts The Church of Latter-day Saints, and Boy Scouts, in addition to more individuals from across the City.  That year we also outgrew working from our driveway.  The good people at High Plains Bank offered us their parking lot and driveway to base Collection Day operations through 2020.

In 2021, the Longmont Scouts Turkey Turnout had its biggest year ever, collecting just over 14,000 pounds of food, 5,800 pounds of clothing, and 150 bikes, as well as $820 in direct financial contributions to the non-profits by generous neighbors.  To date (through 2021), we have collected over 67,000 pounds of food, 20,000 pounds of clothes, and 569 bikes for these local non-profit partners.

In 2022, we have further expanded, with a slight name change, the the Longmont Turkey Turnout, to better represent that we have many other great groups and individuals, other than the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts helping us in this effort.  We had an AMAZING year in 2023, and look forward to this year!  We hope you can take part in our continued success.