Make a meaningful impact this holiday season by participating in the Vernon Rice Memorial Turkey Drive, the university’s annual initiative to support families in need. A $45 donation can provide a turkey and basket of locally sourced vegetables. We are partnering with 8 community organizations to distribute the food to community residents on November 22.
Last year, over 600 families received meals and essential personal care items through this program. This year, we aim to reach even more families. Please consider donating and sharing this important effort with others to help us make a difference. Starting October 1st, donations can be made using the button below.
If you or your team would like to volunteer to distribute food on Friday, November 22, please sign up using this link https://signup.com/mobileweb/2.0/vspot.html?activitykey=949795000108#anonymous_invite_page.
WHO WAS VERNON RICE?
Our Vernon Rice Holiday Memorial Turkey Program is named for Vernon Rice, a former JHU employee who launched his own unofficial charity effort in 1976. Vernon, a maintenance mechanic for the Homewood campus vehicle fleet, wanted to bring help to people in need in our community. After his work shift, he began a regular routine of picking up requests for help—for food, prescriptions, with utility bills, or other needs—from members of Baltimore’s St. Anthony of Padua Church.
By 1993 Vernon had helped hundreds of families, many of whom were facing another holiday season in need. Vernon decided to turn to Johns Hopkins for help in creating a charitable program that would meet that need.
Along with Judy Peregoff, then director of the Johns Hopkins Human Resources Office of Faculty, Staff, and Retiree Programs, Vernon developed a plan to provide gift certificates to families. The certificates, good for a turkey or other food items, would be distributed in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Johns Hopkins solicited donations and administered the program, while Vernon provided a list of families in need.
Vernon worked for JHU for 18 years and in 1995 received Johns Hopkins’ Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Community Service. That year, a record 85 gift certificates were delivered. Vernon died in December 2001. His son, Sam Rice, then an HVAC technician at Hopkins, and other family members helped Hopkins maintain the partnership with church staff so that families in need would continue to receive food during the holidays.
Want to learn more? Check out last year’s event!