“Gobble, gobble” echoes through the intercoms and across the store, followed by a clicking sound of the phone connecting back to its holder, signifying that “a generous guest has donated to the holiday dinner campaign”. From the beginning of October to Thanksgiving day, all Jewel-Osco locations are involved in a food pantry holiday dinner campaign, Turkey Bucks. Jovany Flores, front end manager of the Franklin Park location, yearns to help families in need to celebrate the holidays, as every dollar a customer contributes leads to feeding a family in need for this Thanksgiving.
“My main goal is to provide as many meals as possible to the community and to helping families in need,” says Jovany, with hope resonating in his voice. This year is Jovany’s first year being a front end manager at the Franklin Park Jewel Osco and he is heavily motivated to beat the goal set for this year. As an incentive, Jovany offers cashiers “a $10 gift card for the first place winner, second place winner gets a $5 gift card. So that way they’re kind of just battling it out to see who can get to the gift card first.” Whoever had earned the largest amount of donations at the end of the month of November would receive a $50 gift card to a place of their choosing, as a way to motivate and reward the participating cashiers.
Assistant store director Natalie Brushenko speaks of her wishes for this fundraiser, “The store is doing it because there’s a lot of people in need, and we’re trying to give back, give thanks to the people in need, because they deserve it just as much as anybody else.” The Leyden food pantry fundraiser provides Thanksgiving meals to hundreds of families in need, fueled by the determination of cashiers, by putting out of code items on a summer savings table for free with a $1 to $10 donation and giving two free reusable bags for every $1 given. Natalie continues with sadness in her voice, “It’s important to me, because I agree, like there’s so many people out there who are less fortunate come for harder lives, and they deserve food too. They deserve to eat. We’re all here to share, and it’s Thanksgiving.”
$6,600 sits on the wall towards the exit above a large paper thermometer, covered in green paper flowing over the top, as the store reaches its goal for the first time in years. Teresa Russell says, tears forming in her eyes, “It’s the first time that we actually did that, and it’s phenomenal. I’m just so proud of the front end team and I know we could do more for Christmas.” This fundraiser will continue through the month of December with the Leyden food pantry, with the goal of feeding less fortunate families meals for Christmas. “So it’s really important that we all communicate,” Teresa continues, full of ambition in her voice, “We’re all doing this together to make it happen.” “Jingle, jingle” will replace the endless “gobble, gobbles” throughout the store in hopes to provide for the people in need, with a goal larger than before and more holiday cheer to show off with bright, pearly smiles.
