FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - “It’s Thanksgiving!” announced Fairbanks Community Food Bank CEO Anne Weaver. “That means we’ve got all sort of needs right now for Thanksgiving, everything from turkey, canned yams, cranberries, pies - whatever you like on your Thanksgiving table is fantastic.”

The countdown to Thanksgiving has started at the Fairbanks Community Food Bank. As a critical resource hub for our local community, they rely on help to prepare for a record-breaking thanksgiving need.

“Not only did we provide over 800,000 meals last year alone,” Weaver explained, “but on the day before Thanksgiving we’re looking at about 3,300 households, that’s about 13,000 people in one day that we’re looking to touch. That’s the biggest that we’ve ever had, and we don’t say that with joy, we say that with the rise in prices of food - we’re seeing it. Our numbers are going up like they haven’t in many, many, many years.”

Nonperishable foods are always needed, and can be dropped off at food drives or outside of food bank hours, but perishable items like fresh produce or even a fresh baked treat are needed as well.

“If you’ve got something that needs to be frozen or refrigerated, 9 to 5 Monday through Friday or 10 to 2 on Saturday work fantastic, we absolutely need perishable items,” Weaver emphasized.

Keep in mind that in addition to the upcoming Thanksgiving feast, the Food Bank also runs a continual roster of programs such as School Boxes and the Food as Medicine campaign.

“The biggest thing to me is the incredible willingness of this community to come together and help,” Weaver added. “There’s so much division in this world and at the food bank we don’t care, we just do it together. I love this community and I’m so thankful. ”