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providing Holiday dinners to families in need
Through the Vernon Rice Memorial Butterball Turkey Program at Johns Hopkins University, you can donate $15 to purchase a Butterball gift certificate for a family in need. The certificates will be forwarded directly to the identified families to help them purchase a turkey for the holiday season. To participate, send a $15 check, made payable to JHU Butterball, to the Office of Faculty, Staff and Retiree Programs, 631-N. Wyman Park, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218-2693. For more information, email Sondra Ponzi or call 410-516-0338.
Click HERE for a flier to post up at your workplace.
Checks received after November 15 but before December 14 will be used to provide for families in need for December holidays. All Butterball Turkey contributions must be received by December 14th.
In 1993, Vernon Rice, a maintenance mechanic for the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus vehicle fleet, wanted to find a way to provide holiday dinners to families in difficult economic circumstances. Every day since 1976, at the end of his shift, Rice had stopped by St. Anthony’s of Padua Church to pick up between five and fifteen messages from people in the community who needed food, prescriptions filled, financial assistance to prevent evictions and utility shut-offs, or counseling. After personally visiting hundreds of families each year, Rice knew the need was real. He felt sure that Hopkins employees would be willing to donate food, but did not want to have to stockpile perishable food items on campus and then deliver them to the families.
Meeting with Judy Peregoff, then director of the Johns Hopkins Human Resources Office of Faculty, Staff and Retiree Programs (FSRP), the two devised a plan to provide Butterball Turkey gift certificates to the families. The certificates, good for a turkey valued at $15, or other food items, would be distributed in time for Thanksgiving and again in time for Christmas. Peregoff’s office would solicit donations and administer the program; Rice would provide a list of families in need.
Mr. Rice passed away on December 2, 2001. His son, Sam Rice, an HVAC technician at Hopkins, and other members of his family helped FSRP pick up the loose ends and connect with church staff, to make sure that families were identified and food delivered. Rice had worked for Hopkins for eighteen years and had received the 1995 Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Community Service. The year Mr. Rice died, a record number of at least 85 certificates were delivered.
With the permission of his family, the program continues as the Vernon Rice Memorial Butterball Turkey Program. The Office of Faculty, Staff and Retiree Programs works directly with St. Anthony’s of Padua Church to identify families in need.
Thank You, Johns Hopkins Staff, Faculty, Retirees and Students!
In 2006, you helped 90 families in need with donations toward food for the holidays!