Operation Give Birds expands Cedar Rapids turkey giveaways, adds Dubuque to city distribution centers

Five years after it started, a Thanksgiving prank grows to 1,200 turkey meals for those in need

CEDAR RAPIDS — Five years after a Thanksgiving prank, a group of friends have given “giving the bird” a whole new meaning.

What started as a prank on Austin Hermsen in 2017, when a friend made a Craigslist post advertising free turkeys, has blossomed into a full-fledged nonprofit organization. This year, it’s expanding even more.

Operation Give Birds gave away 80 turkeys in its first year. This year, the operation has grown to 1,200 meal giveaways — including 800 for Cedar Rapids — and is expanding to yet another city.

With steady and continued growth each year, it may be one of the longest running prank to nonprofit gags in Eastern Iowa.

Since becoming a formal 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization in 2019, the Iowa Giving Crew expanded its signature Thanksgiving giveaway for food insecure families to Iowa City in 2020 and Waterloo in 2021. This year, Operation Give Birds will be distributing turkeys in Dubuque, too.

“The ability to build scale has really materialized because of the fact that we’re a 501(c) 3 nonprofit, which opens avenues for funding and donations,” said Nick Dusil, president of Iowa Giving Crew, the organization that runs Operation Give Birds.

In 2017, the operation started in a garage with a few friends scraping together money to help families in Cedar Rapids. Now with Hy-Vee as a vendor and a partnership through Van Meter Inc. in Cedar Rapids, the addition of Dubuque was “a plug and play situation,” Dusil said.

There, meals are packaged and assembled on pallets to distribute to the operation’s four locations, where the need has grown substantially since 2017.

“The last couple years we’ve been expanding. We hit a saturation point of 600 meals for the need in Cedar Rapids,” said the president, who has seen a significant jump in demand over the last year attributed partly to inflation and rising costs. “It’s harder and harder for people to get food.”

This year, 800 people have signed up for meals in Cedar Rapids and no more slots are available. The other 400 meals will be distributed by the entirely volunteer-run organization at their points in Dubuque, Iowa City and Waterloo where meals are still available. Those in need can sign up online via a link on the Operation Give Birds’ Facebook page.

Donations to Iowa Giving Crew’s efforts can be made via their website at IowaGivingCrew.org, via PayPal to donate@iowagivingcrew.org, or via Venmo to the handle Iowa-Givingcrew. A $35 donation feeds a family of four.

Since forming as a nonprofit and gaining more funding after the derecho, Iowa Giving Crew has launched Operation Education, which helps students get lunch in areas where traditional meal funding isn’t sufficient. They’ve also launched Operation Iowa Nice, which works with nonprofits to help clients experiencing barriers to success such as car repairs and child care.

“We can’t do this without our donors and volunteers,” Dusil said. “I want to thank them for their contributions and trust. We’re going to do right by their charitable contributions.”

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