In a spontaneous and emotional moment, a lady approached organizer Mike Diab to thank him for helping her.
Mike Diab said, "we get a lot of people, very thankful to come out and it's heartwarming and bittersweet."
With the help of his family the 55-year-old started the giveaway in 2016 with 50 turkeys.
"We never thought it would balloon to this," said Deanna Diab.
Hundreds of people lined up in a field next to the Highbury Canco Complex for 700 turkeys and fixings.
The Sun County U-16 minor midget team helped distributed the food. "It's great helping out the community coming together as a team, helping all these people. It's awesome," said team captain Cameron Arquette.
Diab says donors stepped up in a bigger way this year because of the economy.
"They also recognize that people are more in need so they were more generous in every way possible."
No registration was required in Leamington or Amherstburg where Michael Dunn and volunteers distributed 200 turkeys.
"It's good to give back to society," said Dunn. "I've been blessed and my family has been blessed so as I say it's just good to give back."
The giveaway was carried out with the help of Amherstburg Community Services. "I was just looking at our numbers the other day and our numbers for our food bank have actually doubled since April," said executive director Kathy Di Bartolomeo. "It’s really important when people like Mr. Dunn step up and give back to their community. It’s greatly appreciated and it goes all year round so that’s good."
Town of Amherstburg staff helped share the turkey dinners. "We're all feeling the pinch a little bit when we go to the grocery store and noticing the increased costs," said Jen Ibrahim, the town’s communications officer. "I think people are recognizing that and digging and digging a little deeper in their pocket to help those who are struggling with that increase."
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