Celebrity chef and TikTok personality Nick DiGiovanni and fellow TikTok chef Lynn "Lynja" Davis donated turkeys to food banks across Massachusetts and Rhode Island on Monday, Nov. 14, 2022. (Courtesy of Stop & Shop)
A record-breaking partnership traveled several miles on Monday to help provide turkeys to New England families for this upcoming Thanksgiving.
Celebrity chef and TikTok personality Nick DiGiovanni collaborated with Stop & Shop to donate 7,500 turkeys across several food banks between Rhode Island and Massachusetts on Monday, an effort expected to break the previous Guinness World Record for most turkeys donated in 24 hours.
DiGiovanni has 7.58 million subscribers on YouTube and 9.5 million followers on TikTok. He recently made a TikTok about the world’s largest sushi. He’s also one of the youngest ever finalists on MasterChef.
DiGiovanni told Spectrum 1 News he expected to break the 100,000-pound record at somewhere between 125,000 and 150,000 pounds.
Using trucks from the nonprofit Farmlink Project, turkeys were dropped off at the Community Food Bank of Rhode Island, Worcester County Food Bank, The Greater Boston Food Bank and The Yawkey Boys & Girls Club. The task was all part of Stop & Shop’s annual Turkey Express Program.
At the Worcester County Food Bank alone, DiGiovanni and Stop & Shop donated 16,000 pounds of turkeys. The food bank’s CEO Jean McMurray praised Stop & Shop for being a generous donor over the years, adding that this was one of the largest donations they have received.
“For as long as I’ve been at the food bank, we’ve always said Thanksgiving is a great time of year to raise awareness about hunger as a year-round problem,” McMurray said to MassLive. “It’s not just about Thanksgiving, yet we do want people to have healthy food for a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. That’s what makes November so busy is that we’re distributing for the other days of the month.”
The locally donated turkeys come at a time when families and individuals are still concerned about the cost of groceries and inflation despite a slowdown in October, McMurray said, which can also impact the food bank. But McMurray said they are prepared for what comes next.
“It’s just the reality of life that sometimes you need help and sometimes you can give help,” she said. “You just never know what situation we may be in. I’m glad that we’re here to both put people’s generosity to work in the community as well as to be here for that community that is turning to us or one of our partner agencies for help.”
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