By: Isaiah S. Showell, Follow South Jersey Multimedia Journalist/’What’s Good’ Host

Editor’s Note: In a previous version of this article, Yesenia Mcwhite and Jill Lombardo Melchiore were misidentified in photos. It has been updated to correctly identify them.
VINELAND, N.J. — Southern Regional Food Distribution held a turkey giveaway on their property in Vineland for families in need on Nov. 20. Executive Director of Rural Development Corporation, Jill Lombardo Melchiore, and her staff were packing Uhaul and other huge trucks with produce and turkeys with 18,000 turkeys ready for families.

Melchiore said that all the work being done on site no one person can take credit for it’s a collaborative effort. “We as an organization work together,” said Melchiore. “You have to have a heart to do this work, this is hard work.”
Eleven counties in New Jersey benefit from Southern Regional Food Distribution from Cumberland to as far as Middlesex County. Churches and non profit organizations lined up to receive food for their communities and the lines led to the main road outside of the Southern Regional Food Distribution gate.
Yesenia Mcwhite food program coordinator for Southern Regional Food Distribution has been serving in her position for 6 years and says her work she does warms her heart
“We distribute to organizations they give it out to their communities,” said Mcwhite. “When they submit the numbers since they’ve been partners from years prior I get an average and that’s how I know how many turkeys and chickens go out to the families.”
Southern Regional Food Distribution is definitely What’s Good in South Jersey.
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