Wyoming Rescue Mission Short on Turkeys as Holiday Meal Demand Soars

The original story by Nick Perkins for Oil City News.

The Wyoming Rescue Mission is putting out an urgent call for help: it’s still well short of the turkeys and groceries it needs to get through the holidays.

The mission is aiming for 250 turkeys, plus all the fixings, to help serve thousands of hot meals over Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year, the need is way up. According to the mission, it expects to serve 21,468 hot meals during the holiday season alone — a jump of 43% over what it had planned.

Those meals aren’t just for people staying at the shelter. Staff say they’re now serving roughly twice as many guests per meal as usual, including many folks who have housing but are struggling with food insecurity. Anyone who needs a hot, nutritious meal is welcome at the mission.

Meals are served three times a day on weekdays and twice a day on weekends and holidays. For Thanksgiving itself, they expect to serve around 200 people. To make that happen, they need whole turkeys and all the traditional sides — things like dressing, green beans, potatoes, yams, canned vegetables, fried onions, cream of mushroom soup, dinner rolls, gravy, cranberry sauce and, of course, pies. Right now, pies and rolls are in especially short supply.

“We are a caring community that comes together for the homeless and hurting in our community,” Executive Director Brad Hopkins said.

He added that something as simple as a hot meal is often the first spark of hope for someone who is homeless or in crisis — a first step that can lead to shelter, free counseling and even a yearlong discipleship recovery program.

Guests in that recovery program will also be packing and delivering Thanksgiving food boxes to low-income neighbors, turning their own healing into hands-on service for others.

The mission is asking that turkeys and other nonperishable holiday foods arrive by Wednesday, Nov. 19 at noon. Donations can be dropped off at the kitchen at 230 N. Park St. in Casper. Those who prefer to give money can donate online at wyomission.org/donate or mail a gift to Wyoming Rescue Mission, P.O. Box 2030, Casper, WY 82602.

The Wyoming Rescue Mission is the state’s only full-service homeless shelter. Each year it serves roughly 3,350 individuals and families, providing more than 85,000 meals and 58,000 nights of safe shelter — and this holiday season, it’s counting on the community to help keep those numbers strong.