Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 3, 1995 TAG: 9511030058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALMENA HUGHES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Chefs Ashley Smoak of the Radisson Patrick Henry Hotel, Wayne Knowles of Hotel Roanoke and Mark McDermott of the Roanoke Airport Marriott hotel won, respectively, for carving the most quarter-inch slices in one minute, carving the fastest, and arranging the most slices on a platter.
Diners, lunching afterward in the mission's cheery dining room at tables decorated with yellow flower bouquets and red-and-blue balloon centerpieces, won, too.
And so did the Rescue Mission, which has received 100 donated turkeys from Honeysuckle White as part of the manufacturer's national More to Share promotion.
The turkeys will enable the mission to feed approximately 600 people on Thanksgiving. And if shoppers buy Honeysuckle White turkeys between now and Nov. 22 and submit the turkeys' hang tags to the mission, the manufacturer will donate an additional pound of turkey for each tag received.
Rescue Mission Director of Development Joy Sylvester-Johnson said Honeysuckle White's gifts, as well as food given by other companies and individuals, enable the mission to serve nutritious meals for about 9 cents a plate. She said the mission, which since 1948 has offered programs and services to help the needy, served 155,000 such meals last year.
"A lot of companies and individual people donate their turkeys and hams, too, especially throughout November," Sylvester-Johnson said. "Those donations will carry us through the spring."
While the mission accepts and appreciates donations, including cooked but not home-canned foods; game; and leftovers from banquets, business meetings and private parties, Sylvester-Johnson said turkeys are coveted because they are good for people with health problems, are versatile and easily can be stretched.
"We make turkey salad, turkey and dumplings, turkey sausage. You may have turkey three times a week, but you'll never get bored with it being fixed the same old way," she said.
by CNB