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Normandy Park family uses festive public vote to gather food bank donations

Donors can place items in the collection bin of their choice. One says “dinner” and the other says “pardon.” The items will be donated to a local food bank.

NORMANDY PARK, Wash. — Since Nov. 1, the Krull family has been collecting food donations for what has become a new Thanksgiving tradition in their community of Normandy Park.  

The family's pet turkeys are on display in an effort to attract more people and more donations. The public can vote to pardon or prepare the turkeys for Thanksgiving.

The food drive is something the family started doing with their turkeys in 2018 and has grown to be a popular community affair that donates all of the collected food to the Transform Burien Community Outreach Center. Their food bank serves hundreds of people a week and outreach director Greg Henken said the turkeys generate a big boost.  

“They provide this abundance of food that’s generated through the community and that’s a blessing,” Henken said.

Donors simply place the items in the collection bin of their choice. One says “dinner” and the other says “pardon.”  

Candace and Tay Krull host the drive with their sons Ray and Daniel and say talking turkey to feed neighbors in need has become a yearly highlight.  

“This is the fifth time we’ve done this and the community really gets behind it. We even had the local police stop by last night to see what the vote count was so they could help,” Candace said.  

Early results proved to be neck and neck but now that we are just days away from Thanksgiving the votes have swayed heavily in the favor of pardoning. 

The last count had 757 donates in the “eat” bin and more than 1,800 donations for the “pardon” bin with a big swell expected in the next few days. The mayor of Normandy Park will be on hand for the official proclamation this week and the Krull family say they hope even more people will cast their vote before then.

In 2017, 2,511 votes were cast. In 2021 more than 4,500 votes were cast and the family is hoping to break a record and fill the food bank this year. 

Donors can drop off food items and cast their vote for the turkey until Wednesday at 3 p.m.

The turkeys are on display in their festive Thanksgiving enclosure on the corner of 200th and 3rd southwest in Normandy Park.

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