Thanksgiving Heroes plans 2,800 meal kits on Nov. 21 and 3,500 families across 2026

DRAPER — Thanksgiving Heroes says its 2026 "Big Day" on Nov. 21 will provide meal kits to 2,800 families across Utah, with volunteers delivering them to the doors of families nominated by schools, clubs, churches and others 1.

The Utah affiliate's stated goal for 2026 is larger: meals for 3,500 families across the year, extending beyond the Wasatch Front to rural communities it says it reaches by air as well as by road 2. Families are nominated through the organization's website, and its own description of the work is that a crew of volunteers delivers the food 2.

**The rest of the year**

The Big Day is one of five programmes the affiliate lists 1. Spring-Giving is listed as packages of nine meals and snacks for 300 families from the Granite School District, in partnership with the grocery chain Macey's 1. Summer-Giving is described as a three-day meal kit for 300 families 1. The Weekly Heroes programme sends monthly meal kits to families in rural Utah 1. Christmas Heroes is listed at 25 families receiving a ham and the fixings 1.

The affiliate also announced on its site that it received the Utah Governor's Spirit of Service Award, and it cites Utah hunger figures of 316,930 people, including 93,050 children, which it describes as one in six children 2.

**The scale of the operation**

Last year's distribution gives a measure of the logistics. KSL reported in November 2025 that Thanksgiving Heroes would deliver 3,500 full turkey dinners from a warehouse in Draper, that nearly 900 cars would line up to collect meals, and that the warehouse held 288,000 pounds of groceries, including 8,000 cans of green beans 3.

Founder Rob Adams told KSL the effort began with a promise to his mother, who died the first year the organization ran 3. Jenni Griffin, described as director of operations, coordinates the work with schools, families and donors 3. Adams described the intent in terms of the visit rather than the food: "The food is just a product we use to get into their homes and let them know they're significant," he said 3.

Neither the affiliate's site nor the KSL account published a figure for the number of volunteers expected this year, or for the cost of the 2026 distribution 13.