It’s a Friday morning in the Campus Kitchen at University of Maryland Eastern Shore, at Shady Grove. Ten student volunteers gather around the stainless steel preparation table that anchors the kitchen, wash hands, snap on gloves, and knot aprons.

They’re about to prepare and cook pumpkin enchiladas for a campus kitchen delivery shift next month – but first there’s a more pressing need at-hand: the students must help label and load two types of meals serving 75 people in the community that morning. Among the dishes: 17 whole, roasted turkeys.

The students – part of the hotel restaurant/management program, led by campus kitchen advisor Susan Callahan – unpack freezers to reveal a full Thanksgiving meal, and then some.

Residents of The Dwelling Place, an agency that works with 17 families to transition them from homeless to secure family life, receive boxes of all the fixings for a complete Thanksgiving feast, plus an extra frozen meal for a later date.

Families at The Dwelling Place might start their campus kitchen meal with fresh-baked bread, homemade gravy on mashed potatoes or steamed carrots and broccoli. Then it’s on to the main courses: sweet potato casserole and a ten pound roasted turkey, served with fresh cranberry relish. For dessert: pumpkin pie and homemade chocolate chip banana bread.

Volunteers piled this feast, along with the extra frozen meals, into three compact cars for transporting to families happy to feel the stress of providing a feast for the holidays melt away.

To deliver every part of the meals to The Dwelling Place clients, the delivery shift went an hour over schedule. But for the satisfaction of stocking refrigerators full of Thanksgiving goodies, it was well work the extra time.

A volunteer preps whole roasted turkeys for families at The Dwelling Place - Susan Callahan

Looking for more news on how Turkeypalooza went for other campus kitchens? Read the news stories linked below, or stay-tuned for the final numbers next week.

Turkeypalooza, University of Nebraska, Kearny

Turkeypalooza, Wake Forest University

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