Coming off their recent Sunday win, the Detroit Lions players and staff joined others in the community to put in a win for Thanksgiving meals for those in need.

On Tuesday, Nov. 11, players and staff joined volunteers from Meijer and the Lineage Foundation for Good in packing Thanksgiving meal kits at Gleaners Community Bank in Taylor.

Volunteers packed canned and dry goods into 3,000 Thanksgiving meal kits.

Those meal kits are part of the Lions’ plans for 10,000 kits – double from last year. Part of what made the meal kits possible is donations from Detroit Lions partners.

For years, the Lions have done Thanksgiving meal initiatives to help those in need. This is the second annual partnership with Grand Rapids-based grocer, Meijer, and the third with Gleaners. As they did last year, Meijer, the exclusive grocery partner for the Lions, is donating all proceeds from this year’s “Raise the Roar” Lions flag sales to the Detroit Lions Foundation, with proceeds tackling food insecurity.

The meal kit packing initiative began a month ago and included Detroit Lions partners AAA – The Auto Club Group (ACG), Delta Airlines, Jiffy Mix, Lineage Foundation for Good and Modern Woodmen of America.

Angela Halverson, director of community giving for Gleaners Community Food Bank, said packing these meal kits on Tuesday represents a “community coming together to help neighbors,” who might be food insecure this time of year.

“The timing is important because Thanksgiving is in a couple of short weeks from now, and we want to make sure that many in southeastern Michigan are going to sit down to a warm meal that they can count on for that Thanksgiving dinner.”

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Halverson said many metro Detroiters will choose between heating their house and purchasing food.

“The Lions are coming together in a partnership with Gleaners to help take one of those worries, ideally off the table,” Halverson told the Free Press.

The 10,000 Thanksgiving meal kits equate to providing more than 330,000 meals. This year the distribution includes metro Detroit food banks as well as those Grand Rapids, Lansing, Saginaw and Traverse City.

Each meal kit includes canned and dry goods. There are green beans, corn, fruit, stuffing, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, cranberry sauce and Jiffy Mix.

Once the kits make it to distribution sites, there’s an addition of a 3-pound bag of fresh apples from North Bay Produce and a whole turkey.

In the boxes are everything you would want for Thanksgiving from potatoes to produce.

“It’s nutritious and warm comforting food and exactly what we need this time of year,” said Halverson.

For Gleaners Community Food Bank information visit gcfb.org.

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