Single-parent Hancock College students receive free Thanksgiving meal at annual turkey giveaway

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – Dozens of Allan Hancock College single-parent students received free Thanksgiving meals during the school's annual turkey giveaway held Tuesday.

Now in its 15th year, the CARE Turkey Event provides eligible students with a gift package worth nearly $60 that includes a turkey and all of the traditional holiday fixings, such as mashed potatoes, bread rolls, green beans, pumpkin pie and much more.

"It's just so wonderful to be able to kick off our holiday season in community, helping students who are quite frankly, needing time and support for jumping into the holidays," said Genevieve Siwabessy, Hancock College Vice President of Student Services. "It's it's really exciting to be part of this tradition at Allen Hancock College, and we hope to be able to do this for 15 more years after this."

The meals are being provided to single-parent students who are involved in several campus program, including EOPS, NextUp, CalWORKs, Rising Scholars, Guardian Scholars, AIM to Dream, CAN/TRIO, Veterans, LAP, Noncredit Counseling and Basic Needs programs.

"This program at Allan Hancock College means a lot to me," said student Susana Garcia. They have so many wonderful programs here, but through CARES they are helping me and my children to be able to have a Thanksgiving, so it really does mean a lot to our family."

More than 50 students picked up meals during the four-hour event that was held in a drive-through format, allowing them to stay in the car while the packages were placed in their vehicle.

It's a blessing," said student Tracy Valderama. "Right now, it's really hard for my family just with economy, how it is, all the food has gone up, so to have for a dinner for my family is awesome to have. It warms my heart completely because it's not every day that we get blessings like this. I'm just grateful."

The meals were provided through generous donations that totaled $3,200, made from contributions by Hancock College staff, faculty and other school employees.

"We know that while we are an academic institution and we are supporting students through their classes, there's so much more in a student's life that we don't always get to see, and really helping helping students outside of the classroom through different activities, and being able to to provide some some goods over the holidays is really what we look forward to doing," said Siwabessy. "It's really about supporting the whole student, and supporting them holistically so that we can take a little bit of the burden off of them outside of school so that they can be successful students when they're here. I think we feel super lucky to be staff members at Allan Hancock College, which is probably why you see such generosity amongst our staff and continue to support this this program."