Minnesota National Guard staff and Beyond the Yellow Ribbon partners and volunteers teamed up for Operation Turkey Drop to provide food for Thanksgiving for Minnesota military veterans, service members, and families in need.

“This is a tremendous effort that can only be accomplished with the hard work, kindness,

volunteerism, and generosity of so many people across Minnesota, and we greatly appreciate it,”

said Army. Col. Eduardo Suarez, Minnesota National Guard’s Director of Culture, Resiliency,

and Community Engagement. “Thank you to all of them. We are so fortunate to live and serve in

a state that cares for and supports our veterans, service members, and families. This is what

community is all about.”

The annual effort involved packing, transporting, and distributing an estimated 1,000 items, weighing approximately 10 tons. Five hundred meals kits (300 from Meals from the Heart and 200 from the United Christian Academy) were packed. On Nov. 15, Minnesota Department of Transportation volunteers moved the meal kits to Thomson Reuters, where on Nov. 18, the kits, along with turkeys (200 donated by the Minnesota Wild and approximately 300 donated by Thomson Reuters), were loaded onto vehicles and delivered by volunteers to armories and air wings across the state. There, the food was distributed to those who registered to receive them.

Stefanie Hurt, Beyond the Yellow Ribbon community outreach coordinator, serves as the project lead for Operation Turkey Drop, and she is thankful to witness every part of it — from the planning, packing, loading and unloading, and eventually to the delivery.  

“And then to the service member or the veteran or their family that gets to walk in and we hand them everything you need for a Thanksgiving meal, from the turkey to the cranberry, to the gravy, to the mashed potatoes, to the stuffing, to the green bean casserole, and everything Minnesotan. And I get to watch that relief,” Hurt said in an interview with the Minnesota News Network. “To know that family has a reason to count their blessings around the table, and it’s because it has touched so many hands along the way and it reaches where it needs to be.”

A similar effort will be conducted for the Christmas holiday season. See more photos from Operation Turkey Drop on the Beyond the Yellow Ribbon page on Facebook.

Beyond the Yellow Ribbon, known also as BTYR, establishes and sustains a community and corporate support network that connects agencies, organizations, and resources to meet the needs of Minnesota’s military veterans and service members in all branches and their families. To learn more about BTYR, visit https://MinnesotaNationalGuard.ng.mil/btyr.

By Cristina Oxtra

Minnesota National Guard Public Affairs