From switching on night lights for one-day-old hatchlings and letting them run around the field at 14 weeks, to serving up a feast for countless guests, Carolyn “Cal” Miller-Stevens knows her way around a turkey.
That’s why when Covid-19 hit and her daughter Taryn came up with the Thankful Turkey idea – buy one, donate one – she loved it. Their family’s fourth-generation Miller Farms on Arch Road in Avon pivoted in 2020 to address a growing need across Connecticut – food insecurity (hunger).
Today Miller Farms Cares and its Thankful Turkey program feed hundreds of thousands of residents in all 169 towns. Now the non-profit is expanding its footprint on the calendar, with food outreach events all year long.
“What we’re finding is everybody donates at Thanksgiving or Christmas, but what happens the rest of the year?” said Miller-Stevens, Chief Ambassador. “They get bombarded during the holidays, then the other 11 months people are hungry.”
When kids get out of school for the summer, they’re often missing the free or reduced-price meals they had. Then at the end of August, back-to-school shopping can cost parents a pretty penny.
Miller Farms has an ongoing partnership with CT Foodshare and is joining with other charities to serve the ongoing need. One is the Avon-based Healing Meals, serving people with debilitating illnesses, and is hosting a turkey dinner at Miller Farms Nov. 4.
Miller-Stevens shared how her family came to raise turkeys, becoming Purdue’s largest distributor in the late 1970s to 80s, until big-box stores joined the party. While Miller no longer raises turkeys on its property due to the changing neighborhood and new USDA regulations, it still partners with all family farms to sell turkeys at local Big Ys and Tulmeadow Farms. An e-commerce business grants the ability to ship around the country, so companies send gift boxes to hundreds of employees as a thank-you for their hard work.
Miller Foods and its popular pet food brand, Oma’s Pride, cover 100% of the operating costs of Miller Farms Cares, and a volunteer board guides outreach efforts. The goal is to double their budget to $50,000 for donations this year. “We have a big challenge ahead of us, but it seems easier when the people on the team are motivated and passionate,” said board member Steve Bonnell of Avon. When longtime friend Sam Stevens, Cal’s husband, told him they were ramping up, “it was a big yes” for Bonnell. “Challenge accepted,” he said.
Fellow board member Lindee Kobylarz grew up with the Millers, who once had up to 20,000 turkeys roaming their five-acre farm. Both joined other volunteers at a thank-you dinner Miller-Stevens hosted recently. “We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, we’re trying to support and complement what other folks are doing using the unique capabilities of Miller Farms to expand our outreach,” Kobylarz said.
An estimated one in seven people and one in five children in CT don’t know where their next meal will come from, according to Al Marino, retired Director of Corporate Giving and Community Giving at Connecticut Foodshare and a Miller Farms Cares board member.
“People think of food insecurity as being a city problem, but people are hungry right here, even in Avon and Farmington,” Marino said.
Miller-Stevens has helped distribute turkeys in years past, and it always impacts her on a personal level. “It fills your heart to hear that thank-you,” she said.
When we’re struggling, it can be hard to ask for help. Call it hunger or food insecurity, but it’s not a term people are apt to readily accept for themselves or their families. Still, many folks need assistance putting food on the table, especially in challenging times.
“How can we keep people prideful and support them at the same time?” Miller-Stevens posed. “We all go through ups and downs in life. We’re just trying to make a difference however we can.”
“What we’re finding is everybody donates at Thanksgiving or Christmas, but what happens the rest of the year?"