Turkeys donated this weekend will help provide the main course for next Thursday’s free community dinner expected to provide more than 2,000 meals on Thanksgiving for people in Manteca and Lathrop,

The dinner — coordinated by the Sunrise Kiwanis along with the Manteca Rotary — takes place Thanksgiving  Day, Nov. 23, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Golden West School, 1031 North Main Street.

There are 79 volunteers helping to prepare the dinner in a bid to make sure people throughout Manteca can celebrate Thanksgiving with a traditional meal regardless of their situation.

Many of the meals being served will be prepared for takeout or delivered to shut ins.

To request Thanksgiving meals if you can’t dine at Golden West School, go to the Manteca Sunrise Kiwanis Facebook page and click on the Thanksgiving meal request form above the dinner flyer.

You can also call 1-800-592-7417 and leave a message.

Volunteers need to cook 98 turkeys to meet the demand.

The free community meal is in addition to a series of turkey and food drives this weekend to help Manteca food banks supply the traditional meal and fixings for struggling area families.

There are four ways you can drop off a frozen turkey donation — and other food items as well — in the coming days to assist with efforts to make sure struggling families don’t go without a traditional meal this Thanksgiving

*Saturday and Sunday (Nov. 18-19) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with Manteca Transit’s Stuff the Bus at Food-4-Less on Spreckels Avenue.

*Saturday (Nov. 18) from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with Spreckels Park Little League at the West Yosemite Avenue Save Mart.

*Saturday (Nov. 18) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with the Manteca Firefighters at Safeway.

*Today as well as Monday through Wednesday next week from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Greater Valley, 1220 Vanderbilt Circle, in the Manteca Industrial Park.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mnantecabulletin.com