Brothers Jude Romero, left, and Jameson Barnes, both 11, carry bags of frozen turkeys during a Thanksgiving food distribution event in the parking lot of the Desert Breeze Community Center Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020. The event was a partnership between Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones, Three Square and Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada.
Monday, Nov. 8, 2021 | 2 a.m.
As supply chain bottlenecks are forcing many restaurants to alter their menus based on available product, one sector of Las Vegas has kept its shelves stocked at normal levels: food banks.
For the Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, the shortages will have a minor impact on holiday plans, which include giving full turkeys to families in the group’s Meals on Wheels program, said community relations director Leslie Carmine.
“That process, because we need so many, starts way before you want to think about turkey,” Carmine said.
The charity’s St. Vincent Lied Dining Center, which has operated since 1965, is well-equipped with years of knowledge and practice in dealing with potential delays or shortages, she said. Menus have been adjusted to accommodate available ingredients and navigate a lack of containers.
The dining room is open daily for free community meals from 10 to 11 a.m.
“They’ve had to spend extra time doing all of that, researching where we can find certain items,” Carmine said. “We ordered food ahead so we would have it because we could tell ‘OK, there’s problems.’ ”
Three Square Food Bank is also sturdily stocked heading into the holidays, said Larry Scott, chief operation officer. He said that while shipping times have been stretched by weeks, the items the food bank purchases account for approximately 10% of its inventory.
The remaining food — 40% of which is provided by the federal government, 42–45% donated from grocery stores or individuals — is substantial enough to move forward, he said.
Three Square partners with local grocery stores to take items the stores would have otherwise thrown away. For instance, a misshapen piece of fruit might not have much appeal to a shopper, but for the food bank there is value, Scott said.
“We have to make sure that they do not succumb to the temptation to throw it in the landfill,” Scott said. “We’re fortunate in that regard that that’s going to always keep us in business.”
Shoppers are walking into their local supermarkets seeking familiar Thanksgiving foods like stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy fixings — and, of course, turkey. And those turkeys could be more expensive than in past years.
The cost of a whole turkey is becoming less affordable, according to “Free Turkeys: A Thing of Thanksgiving Past?”, a study that examines the rising turkey prices. In September 2021, the average cost of a whole bird in the United States was just over $1.40 per pound. Around Thanksgiving last year, it was about $1.10 per pound, and in November 2019, $1 per pound.
Kevin Bergquist, food and agribusiness industry adviser at Wells Fargo who worked on the study, said there may be a trade-off between turkey and other Thanksgiving means.
“Turkey is still very affordable, even if prices are up year-over-year or over a couple of years,” Bergquist said. “You’re going to have a marginal buyer out there that, unfortunately, is priced out of some higher-cost goods, and … maybe they won’t get a particular dessert item because they want that turkey.”
