Hundreds Of Turkeys Handed Out To Families In Need At Stew Leonard's In Norwalk: PHOTOS

NORWALK, CT — Hundreds of turkeys were handed out Thursday morning at Stew Leonard's in Norwalk to families in need and local organizations ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Senator Richard Blumenthal and Mayor Harry Rilling joined police, firefighters and other first responders at the Norwalk store for the family-run grocery chain's 46th annual Turkey Brigade, during which Stew Leonard's expects to donate more than 2,000 turkeys, according to signage at the event.

Nicole Weiss, vice president of the Norwalk store, said over 35 organizations lined up in Norwalk to pick up turkeys for those in need as part of a tradition that was very important to the Leonard family.

"It's a tradition to give food to those in need that can't put a turkey on their table," Weiss said to Patch. "We take donations and we like to give back to everyone in need. It's just something that Stew [Leonard] Sr. started a long time ago, and it's really important for us to always give back to those less fortunate."

Blumenthal thanked CEO Stew Leonard Jr. and his team for the event, as well as police and fire services for their contributions to the city of Norwalk and Fairfield County.

"This occasion really reminds us that there are people who need help," Blumenthal said at the start of the event, "people who would go without turkeys on Thanksgiving, which really would be so unfortunate in the strongest, richest, most powerful country in the world. For anybody to be lacking at Thanksgiving is really just unacceptable, and Stew Leonard's is filling that gap for a lot of people."

Norwalk officials, police and first responders formed a human assembly line during the event to pass out turkeys one by one and place them into the backs of a line of vehicles to be transported throughout the community to designated families who are facing food insecurity this Thanksgiving.

According to additional press materials provided by the store, thousands of turkeys will be given away by Stew Leonard’s across the tri-state area to help combat food insecurity.

"Prices are higher than ever before on this Thanksgiving, and people need this kind of help to make Thanksgiving the really joyous, wonderful holiday that it is," Blumenthal said. "It's truly a uniquely American holiday, and so Stew Leonard's is demonstrating his patriotism, his good community citizenship, and helping a lot of people who really need this kind of assistance to make Thanksgiving the truly wonderful holiday that it is."

Rilling also thanked Leonard and his team and noted Norwalk claims Stew Leonard's as "our hometown business" due to its origins in the city.

Located at 100 Westport Avenue, the "World's Largest Dairy Store" was founded in Norwalk in 1969 and now has locations in Danbury and Newington, as well as three New York stores and two New Jersey locations.

Weiss noted the store expects about 1,300 catering orders for Thanksgiving this year.

"We've been preparing for Thanksgiving, I want to say since August," Weiss said. "We are doing catering orders and getting turkeys on the shelf, we get our team members trained, we hire an additional 300 to 500 employees depending on what store we're in, we're rearing up our Christmas tree shop, we are getting everything so we can make your Thanksgiving a little less pressure. We have all our prepared foods, we're all super excited...it's our favorite time of the year."