8,000 Meals Prepared Daily in Deer Park Red Cross Kitchen

Starting Thanksgiving morning, the American Red Cross, in partnership with the Southern Baptist Convention, will deliver thousands of holiday meals to Long Islanders hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy.

The mobile feeding center, set up at the State Trooper Fabio Buttitta Memorial Park along Acorn Street, near Robert Frost Middle School in Deer Park, has been distributing about 8,000 meals a day since the storm hit, Anita Foster, coordinator for the Red Cross said in an interview Tuesday.

Starting at about 10:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day, 25 Red Cross vehicles will hit the streets to give Long Island families a warm, festive meal as they continue to recover from Sandy.

"I can't imagine being excited about cooking a turkey when the power just came on this week. People can come out to the food truck on their street, grab their meal and not have to worry about cooking. We're going to try to make it as Thanksgiving-like as possible," Foster said.

The meals include include traditional Thanksgiving trimmings such as turkey, mashed potatoes and apple pie.

Donations to the Red Cross can be made by visiting www.redcross.org, calling call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or texting the word REDCROSS (all one word) to 90999 to make a $10 donation.