Thanksgiving 2022: Turkey shortage impacting SoCal food pantries, including West Valley Food Pantry in Woodland Hills [Video]

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. (KABC) — When you visit the West Valley Food Pantry, you hear stories like Eric Flygenring’s.

“We had my wife’s check bounce from work and we also lost some insurance and times got a little tough, so this helps,” he said.

Inflation has made it hard to survive, and this Thanksgiving, some families won’t be able to afford a turkey. Sadly, even the food pantry doesn’t have enough.

“The Avian flu that happened reduced the number of turkey’s available,” said Lily Varner, the senior manager of operations for the West Valley Food Pantry. “A lot of the places we used to rely on turkeys didn’t have them. We got half the number we usually get. The cost per pound also went up exorbitantly.”

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the West Valley Food Pantry fed 30 families a day.

During the pandemic, they were feeding 14,000 families a month.

Those numbers went down, …