Turkey Time
HCC culinary arts students support community Compassion Project
Culinary arts students at Holyoke Community College prepared 123 roast turkeys and 300 pounds of glazed sweet potatoes to help feed hungry people this Thanksgiving as part of The Compassion Project.
Yesterday afternoon, the last few birds were carved up by a few student volunteers who had stayed long after their classes had ended for the day at the HCC MGM Culinary Arts Institute.
“It’s for a good cause, and I watched my classmates and my teachers work so hard on the turkeys yesterday and today,” said student Sanai Hale of Springfield.
This is the 23rd year for The Compassion Project, which was founded by community organizer Areliz Barbosa to deliver meals to hungry people on Thanksgiving.
Last year, the HCC culinary arts crew prepared 90 turkeys to help The Compassion Project give out 1,000 hot meals for Thanksgiving. This year, Chef Tracy Carter, chair of the HCC culinary arts program, integrated the cooking of turkeys and Thanksgiving sides into the culinary arts curriculum to help meet The Compassion Project’s 2025 goal of delivering 2,000 hot meals.
“We were inspired by what she was doing,” said Carter. “I thought our students would like to be involved in that, to see something bigger than just us. And all of them were really excited to volunteer. They saw the value in it.”
Pastor Melvin Coleman, of Glory House Church in Springfield, picked up the food and delivered it to the Gran Cocina commercial kitchen in Holyoke, where hot meals where will be available for pickup or sit down on Thanksgiving Day as well as elsewhere.
“Gran Cocina is one of the distribution sites,” said Coleman, “along with other places all over the Greater Holyoke and Springfield area.”
As Colemen loaded a large white van with large aluminum pans of turkey and sweet potatoes, Carter was in the kitchen offering cooking tips.
First, they break down the turkeys before roasting, cooking the thighs and legs separately from the breasts.
They also coat the turkeys with a brine of salt, a little sugar, and garlic powder and then let them air dry in the refrigerator uncovered before putting them in the oven.
“That pulls out all the moisture, and you get crispy skin,” she said. “That little bit of sugar promotes browning.”
PHOTOS: (Thumbnail) Culinary arts students Sanai Hale and Anthony Maldonado Gonzalez, both of Springfield, finish carving up turkeys prepared for The Compassion Project's free Thanksgiving meal distributions. (Above) Stacy Graves, HCC assistant director of operations, hands a platter of glazed sweet potatoes to volunteer Melvin Coleman, pastor of Glory House Church in Springfield.
