Over 4,000 of Portland’s most needy got a boost from the Portland Trail Blazers during the annual Harvest Dinner, November 7. Now in its sixth year, the Blazers players, coaching staff, front office staff and local media served up a traditional turkey dinner, offered personal care packages, hair cuts by Supercuts and Cosmetology Careers, health exams and other critical services.

This effort brings the Blazers together with nearly 35 city nonprofits such as Central City Concern, Albina Head Start, Morrison Center Children and Family Services and Loaves and Fishes to offer Portland’s largest dinner for the homeless.

In addition to more than 4,000 meals the Blazers served at the Rose Garden, the staff and players took Harvest Dinner on the road via the Meals-On-Wheels program, delivering meals to homebound seniors.

The dinner consisted of 1600 pounds of turkey, 1600 pounds of ham, 950 pounds of salad, 48 heads of lettuce, 55 cases of stuffing, 50 cases of green bean casserole, two cases of gravy mix, 6 cases of cranberry sauce, 10 lbs of salt, 10 lbs of black ground pepper, six cases of butter pats, 500 dozen dinner rolls, 480 pumpkin pies, 250 gallons of coffee, 1,200 pints of milk, 10,000 napkins, 5,000 plates, 50 pounds of coffee, 100 cases of bottled water and five kegs of soda pop.

The Blazers team, coaches, broadcasters, BlazerDancers, staff and families contributed both time and money to the event. Teens from the Blazers Community Builders Youth Corps, in partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland, volunteered. Numerous other organizations also contributed to the Harvest Dinner efforts this year, including: Supercuts, Cosmetology Careers, Arrowhead Bottled Water, Boyd’s Coffee, Coca Cola, Darigold, Fletchers Fine Foods, Franz Bakery, Food Services of America, Carolina Turkey, Foster Farms, Sugar Foods, Fred Meyer, Godfather’s Pizza, Service Paper and PACTIV/Tenneco, Hershey, Imperial Bondware Corp, Kenco Sales and Pacific Coast Fruit.