| Sarah Heinonen
sheinonen@thereminder.com
Category:
EAST LONGMEADOW — On the morning before Thanksgiving, a small army of volunteers were hard at work at East Village Tavern in East Longmeadow, adding bags of potatoes and cans of green beans to the more than 30 separate boxes that lined the bar and sat atop stools.
John “Sully” Sullivan, co-owner of East Village Tavern has been running the Annual Thanksgiving Basket Drive for more than 15 years, with the past two years taking place at the tavern. Sullivan said his mother, a former teacher in Springfield, had begun the tradition after becoming aware of some families that could not afford to cook a holiday meal for their family.
Since then, the Thanksgiving Basket Drive has grown. With the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the need more than doubled over the past few years.
This year, Sullivan partnered with the East Longmeadow Rotary Club, a community organization he recently joined. He told Reminder Publishing that the Rotary Club is “just an awesome organization” because of “the amount of things they do for the community, for kids.” Sullivan and Bill Toth, the manager of the North Main Street Monson Savings Bank and a fellow Rotarian, acted as contacts and accepted donations through Nov. 21. While some donations came from businesses, such as Valley Spud in Hadley, which donated two cases of potatoes, much of the food came from individual donors.
The baskets provided families with a traditional Thanksgiving Day meal, and included a turkey, two bags or boxes of stuffing, 5 pounds of potatoes, 2 pounds each of butternut squash and onions, two cans of green beans or corn, two cans of jellied cranberry sauce, a half-gallon of sweet cider and a pumpkin pie.
The East Village Tavern also accepted monetary donations of $75, which was estimated to feed a family of four for the holiday.
With the help of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, state Rep. Bud Williams and others, Sullivan gathered a list of names and addresses of Springfield families that could use help in securing the foodstuffs. Five East Longmeadow families also benefited from the baskets. After the baskets were assembled, volunteers delivered them to the intended homes.
“Our business is built around friends and family coming together to eat, drink and enjoy each other’s company,” Sullivan said in a press release about the drive. “It’s our responsibility to feed those in our community that may not be able to join us for times of celebration. It’s our honor to give back.”