The Amazin’ Mets Foundation, in partnership with Stop & Shop and Toyota, hosted its 11th annual MetsGiving Turkey Giveaway on Friday, Nov. 21, at Queensborough Community College (QCC), located at 222-05 56th Ave. in Bayside.
This turkey distribution, which ran from 2-3 p.m., was one of five that took place across each borough of New York City.
New York Mets infielder Mark Vientos and mascot Mr. Met made special appearances at the Queens turkey giveaway, where they assisted in giving away 350 turkeys and other Thanksgiving food to QCC students.
“It’s awesome to do this and give back to the community and just have families enjoy Thanksgiving,” Vientos said. “You’ve seen people smile and happy just to see us giving out [food], whether it’s apples, potatoes or turkeys. Everybody’s happy and having a good time.”
Vientos and Mr. Met were joined at the QCC MetsGiving Turkey Giveaway by Stop & Shop School Food Pantry Program Manager Shannon Karafian, Amazin’ Mets Foundation Head of the Foundation and Community Engagement Team Jane Son and QCC President Dr. Christine Mangino.
“We believe that everyone should be able to sit down and enjoy a holiday meal with their loved ones,” Karafian said. “We support Queensborough Community College through our Stop & Shop School Food Pantry program, where we support schools with on-campus pantries so that students have consistent access to healthy foods all year round. Today is a way to supplement the school’s food pantry to provide just a little bit of extra help. The holidays can be an especially challenging time. We also have been partnered with the Mets since June, where we’ve actually partnered and served over 20,000 meals to Stop & Shop school food pantries across Queens and Long Island. We’re just grateful to be here today to have such amazing partners like QCC and the Mets, who are as committed to fighting hunger as we are, and to be able to show the impact we’re able to make when we come together as a community.”
“[QCC] has a lot of students that use the school pantry, and so for them to be able to come here and pick up a turkey and sides helps to give them an opportunity to celebrate this upcoming Thanksgiving,” Son said. “I think it’s great, and the students are very, very appreciative that we’re here to support them.”
“Our food pantry gets about 6,100 students a year in there, and we’ve had students lined up for the last couple of hours in order to get food for Thanksgiving,” Dr. Mangino said. “We are so grateful for the community partners who make that happen. It’s supporting the families of Queens. Our students are all residents of Queens County, and they are bringing this food back for their families so that they can celebrate.”
In addition to helping out and meeting fans at the Queens turkey distribution, Vientos also spent time at the Manhattan distribution at the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation, located at 45 Wadsworth Ave., from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.
“It’s awesome to interact with everybody in the community, especially in different areas,” Vientos said. “It just makes me more familiar with the city and makes it more comfortable. I’ve been here for a couple of years now, and I think every year that I have played here, I’m getting more and more comfortable.”
More than 8,700 turkeys were distributed across all five locations. In addition to QCC and the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation, the other distributions took place at Project Hospitality, located at 205 Canal St. on Staten Island, the Child Development Support Corporation, located at 352-358 Classon Ave. in Brooklyn, and the New York Common Pantry, located at 1290 Hoe Ave. in the Bronx.
