Biggest ever turkey donation provides festive feast for 15,000 families

Thanksgiving marks the start of the holiday season alongside the giving spirit that comes with it and Jennie-O (USA) certainly filled the quota with their largest donation of turkey in 24 hours.

An astonishing 145,353.91 kg (320,450 lb 8.3 oz), or 15,120 turkeys were donated in a single day.

Jennie-O collaborated with NBC’s Today where weather anchor and prolific Guinness World Records title holder Al Roker helped set the record live on their flagship morning show.

This beat the previous record of 64,463.44 kg (142,117.55 lb) set last year by TikTok stars Nick DiGiovanni and Lynn Davis.

The brand attempted the record to help support food charities and the families that rely on them during the festive months.

This was echoed by Jilly Stephens, CEO of City Harvest a food charity on set, stating that "over 3 million working-age New Yorkers struggle to make ends meet."

Before the turkeys could be donated to the charities, the total weight had to be verified.

For this, Official Adjudicator Michael Empric visited the freezer facility in South Dakota where the turkeys were being held.

At the facility, Michael weighed the pallets against their individual recorded amounts stored in a database, to ensure that the quantities matched.

Once he was satisfied that all the weights were accurate the turkeys could be donated.

To maximise the number of charities to donate to, Jennie-O partnered with Feeding America which works to end hunger in the United States.

As per the Guinness World Records guidelines, for the record to be successful, all turkeys would need to be donated within 24 hours. Which provided quite the challenge!

Eight Jennie-O semi-trucks were deployed from Minnesota to New York and Chicago, where the turkeys were hand-delivered to each Feeding America location.

Each bag contained a whole turkey, as well as cooking tips, recipes and a hotline for any meal-prep questions or emergencies.

Half of the turkeys were donated to the New York area through their partners, Food Bank for New York City and City Harvest

The other half was donated to one of Feeding America’s Chicago partners, the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

News of the successful record was then announced live during Today.

This was received by the enthusiastic (and very cold) group of Jennie-O and City Harvest employees.

Thanksgiving is an especially important time for the Jennie-O® brand. We are honoured to collaborate with TODAY and Feeding America to provide 15,000 whole turkeys to those in need in New York and Chicago. We also have a long-standing of working with organizations around the U.S. to donate turkeys and this year we're donating more than 5,000 to local organizations. This special holiday is about giving thanks and sharing a meal with those you love. With these donations, we hope to make this Thanksgiving particularly memorable for thousands of families. - Steve Venega, Assistant Vice President, Retail Marketing - Value Added Meats for Hormel