11/18/2024
Episode 4: Operation Turkey Houston | Tim Stroud
Thanks for joining us this week, on the Synergy Corridor. We live in this community and love highlighting all of the good there is out there. If you have a local story, individual, or upcoming event that you would like to be featured on the Synergy Corridor podcast be sure to email us at [email protected]. We would love to hear from you. Don’t forget to write us a review on Apple Podcasts and share the show with your friends and neighbors. This week’s Synergy Corridor podcast has been brought to you by the ECHO: The Energy Corridor of Houston Orchestra in collaboration with the Outreach Center of West Houston, and produced by Podastery LLC. Our executive producers are Sarah McDonner and Beau York, our guest this week was Tim Stroud with Operation Turkey.
Over the last 24 years Operation Turkey has remained a 100% volunteer organization without a single paid employee. We are more than 50,000 volunteers strong working together to ensure everyone receives a warm meal on Thanksgiving Day. No matter where you are Thanksgiving Day, you can participate with Operation Turkey. Once you do it, please tell others about it, and together we will eradicate hunger one meal, one day, at a time.
Operation Turkey’s history back to the year 2000 when Richard Bagdonas had just finished his own Thanksgiving dinner with friends. Full from his delicious meal, he did what many of us do, plate the leftovers. While driving home, he decided that the extra food could benefit someone more…
“That Thanksgiving, I drove downtown to 6th Street on my way home and handed out a plate of food to a homeless man in a wheelchair. He couldn’t thank me because he was mentally challenged, but the homeless guy next to him said ‘thank you’ and helped feed the meal to the man. Afterwards I sat in my car and cried, and I knew I wanted to do something about it.”
In 2010, Richard made the decision to hand over the organization to a new leader, Brian Tolbert. Brian immediately realized the potential of the grass roots organization and wanted to share it with other cities. In 2011, Operation Turkey opened its first new location in San Marcos, Texas and each year more cities and states joined. In 2019, the organization delivered more than 62,000 meals in 22 cities and 7 states with more than 35,000 volunteers.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we operated in a limited capacity and successfully delivered more than 75,000 meals in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, we got back to normal operations and delivered more than 50,000 meals. Join us in 2023 as we continue getting back on track to deliver more meals to the homeless and less fortunate.
On Thursday, November 28th from 8:30am-12:00pm, Operation Turkey, in partnership with the Rotary Club of Houston Galleria and the Outreach Center of West Houston, will be blessing families in need of a warm meal on Thanksgiving with a free one! Scan the QR code to reserve your meals.
Tune in and listen to the podcast here: https://www.echorchestra.org/synergycorridorpodcast
