Three hundred Thanksgiving turkey dinners will be handed out for free in Toronto this weekend.

Now in its seventh consecutive year, the annual Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway returns to Downsview Park this Sunday, giving families across the city the chance to celebrate the fall tradition with all the makings for a poultry feast, offering hampers complete with a full turkey, potatoes, and cranberry sauce.

The giveaway was first held in 2020 and has provided nearly 2,000 complete Thanksgiving dinners to local families in the years since it launched.

The giveaway comes amid record-highs in food insecurity. Northcrest cites 4.1 million local food bank visits last year — a shocking 340 per cent increase over 2019 — as a key reason why this giveaway is so necessary for many families struggling to put meals on the table.

The turkey giveaway may only be seven years old, but the tradition of providing Thanksgiving dinners to Toronto families in need stretches back decades. Honest Ed’s founder Ed Mirvish famously hosted an annual turkey giveaway from the late 1980s until the store’s ultimate demise in 2015.

This year’s giveaway will be held on Sunday, Oct. 11 at 12 p.m. within the Downsview Park Merchants Market at 40 Carl Hall Rd.

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Jack Landau, blogTO

Jack is a Toronto-based writer and photographer, often ranting about something or other.

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