Youngwood Sportsmen’s turkey shoot to benefit local families, food bank

Like their neighbors, members of the Youngwood Sportsmen’s Association see how quickly food costs are rising.

“There are a lot of people struggling, and we were sitting around thinking about what we could do to help,” association President Ed Sadler said.

With 1,700 members, there were plenty of options, and they came up with a clever spin on the traditional “turkey shoot” target shooting competition.

Winners won’t take a turkey home Nov. 6 but, rather, will be able to donate Thanksgiving dinner to a local family.

“We partnered with local churches to identify 50 families in the area, and our membership volunteered to take $2,000 of club money to buy the turkey dinners,” Sadler said.

Participants can pay $4 to join a group of 10 on a shooting line. The closest shot to the “X” from each line will have a turkey dinner donated in their name.

Proceeds from the shoot will offset the cost of the dinners, and any additional money will be donated to the Westmoreland Food Bank.

That is good news to county food bank Executive Director Jennifer Miller as the organization heads into the holiday season. Because, while the food bank’s funding is about the same level as last year, a dollar doesn’t have as much purchasing power as it did in 2021.

“With inflation, our food costs have skyrocketed like everyone else’s,” Miller said. “And, as we prepare for the holidays, we’re ordering our turkeys and hams way in advance because we have to plan for it. So funding that comes in now helps to offset that cost.”

And, as always, Miller said, able-bodied volunteers are more than welcome at the food bank’s stocking and packing events.

“The national trend right now is that many volunteers are aging, and the jobs volunteers do for us are usually labor-intensive,” she said. “We’re always looking for people to help with heavy lifting.”

A few years ago, Miller said, the food bank could essentially leverage donations to purchase about $10 of food for every dollar donated.

“We haven’t done the math, but that’s certainly not the case now, and it’s not going away anytime soon,” she said.

Sadler said he hopes a good turnout will lead to a decent donation for the food bank.

“We’re getting really good response not just from members but from people in town,” he said.