POCATELLO — People in search of free Thanksgiving meals are encouraged to head to Senor Garcia’s Puerto Vallarta on Pocatello Creek Road on Thursday.

The eatery’s owner Nick Garcia is hosting his free Thanksgiving day luncheon at the restaurant from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Anyone looking for a warm place to enjoy a home cooked meal is welcome to come, Garcia said.

“I will be serving 18 turkeys, a little bit over 100 pounds of mashed potatoes, another 100 pounds of stuffing, yams with marshmallows and brown sugar, some cranberry sauce and Mom’s traditional gravy for the turkey and mashed potatoes,” Garcia said. “A buddy of mine will be making some pumpkin pies that we plan to give out, too.”

This will be the first time in two years Garcia is hosting his free Thanksgiving meal, a tradition he started in 2013. The COVID-19 pandemic put a damper on his plans the previous two years, though he was still able to cook Thanksgiving food and provide it to the local Salvation Army to distribute to those in need, Garcia said.

“I remember three years ago the last time we did it at the restaurant, we had a family where the mother had recently suffered a heart attack and the family ended up at the hospital,” Garcia said. “Because of the free Thanksgiving dinner they were able to come have a meal with us and then take a plate up to their wife and mother.”

Garcia said he wanted to give a huge shout out to Del Monte Meats, the local business that donated all 18 turkeys for this year’s Thanksgiving Day meal. The rest of the sides come right out of Garcia’s pocket, but he says ensuring everyone has something to eat during the holiday is well worth the cost.

Kia Shaw, eastern branch manager with the Idaho Foodbank, said her staff made its Thanksgiving food box distributions on Saturday. Despite a national turkey shortage as a result of the widespread avian flu this past summer, Shaw said the local Idaho Foodbank was able to distribute over 1,000 Thanksgiving meals to those in need.

She said Barrie’s Ski & Sports donated several frozen turkeys through its annual Cranksgiving event, Pocatello police gave several turkeys through the annual Give the Cops a Bird event and local community members also made donations.

“We were really worried about the week of our distribution because on Nov. 14 when we looked at our count we had less than 450 turkeys in our freezer,” Shaw said. “We were really concerned about being able to meet the bare minimum of our needs, but the Pocatello-Chubbuck community really stepped up and they utilized some programs that different grocery stores were offering where you spend a certain amount of money and received a free turkey.”