Together We Achieve hands out 500 Thanksgiving dinners

CEDAR RAPIDS — Together We Achieve, a Cedar-Rapids based nonprofit, handed out Thanksgiving dinners to 500 households Monday.

Families preregistered to receive the meals, which included a turkey, a bag of potatoes, cranberry sauce, rolls, green beans, mac and cheese, stuffing, taco mac, creamed corn, tomatoes, raisins, walnuts and spices for cooking, according to Raymond Siddell, the founder and president of Together We Achieve.

“This is our third year in a row that we’ve done this,” Siddell said. “In 2020 and 2021 we did 350 families for Thanksgiving each year, and we did 350 families for Christmas as well. This year we were able to increase it to 500 for both.”

The registration for the Family! Feast! Fun! giveaway, which is the meal Together We Achieve gives out in December, still is open. The nonprofit is also still searching for volunteers and accepting donations for that giveaway. Families and volunteers can register on the nonprofit’s website.

“We call it Family! Feast! Fun! for the holidays, rather than Christmas, in case people don’t celebrate,” Sidell said.

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