OCVTS Feed the Need 2015 Prepares 3,000 Meals for Local Families!
Jean Sullivian, November 25, 2015

OCVTS Feed the Need 2015 Prepares 3,000 Meals for Local Families!

BRICK, NEW JERSEY Students and staff at the Ocean County Vocational Technical School’s Brick Center partnered again this year with the Food Bank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties and prepared 3,000 Thanksgiving meals which were distributed through local social service agencies to those in need.

Culinary Arts students from the Brick Center, under the direction of their Culinary Arts instructors, prepared and roasted over 250 turkeys, as well as preparing traditional side dishes including: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, gravy and of course holiday pies. This year over twenty OCVTS Culinary Arts graduates returned to the Brick Center to lend a helping hand. Many of these graduates who are currently working in the culinary field took time off from their jobs to be part of this extraordinary project. Massive assembly lines of students packaged the meals and prepared them to be distributed today local social service such as the Food Bank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, Preferred Behavioral Health, the Toms River People’s Pantry and Ocean County Hunger Relief.

Fundraising efforts by Brick Center students, faculty and staff to collect food items and cash donations fund this annual community service project which began about 17 years ago. Donations through the Monmouth Ocean Food Bank and various OCVTS vendors provided the food needed for the meals. A grant awarded to the project from the Ocean County Foundation for Vocational Technical Education assisted in the purchase of additional supplies.

What does it take to prepare 3,000 Thanksgiving meals?
BY THE NUMBERS…
Over 3000 lbs. of turkeys
1500 lbs. of potatoes
1200 lbs. of sweet potatoes
850 lbs. of stuffing
450 lbs. of green beans
90 gallons of gravy
1000 holiday pies