Thanksgiving Basket Drive 2025

Thanksgiving Basket Drive 2025 at Jesuit High School was an amazing success thanks to, once again, the extraordinary generosity of the school community saving the day.

Friday morning (Nov. 21), less than a day before the drive would culminate with hundreds of volunteers in Oliva Courtyard packing and delivering 325 robust Thanksgiving meals, there was a significant problem: not enough turkeys. After 2.5 days of collections, the Dads' Club had 270 frozen turkeys.

Jesuit posted to social media about the turkey shortage, and the response was staggering: That afternoon saw the largest final collection of turkeys in basket drive history! By the end of the day, the Dads' Club had more than 400!

The incredible response set up a picture-perfect Saturday to wrap-up TBD 2025. First with Mass in the Chapel of the Holy Cross, then brunch, and then, under gorgeous sunshine, hundreds of students and families put the finishing touches on the biggest drive ever. In less than an hour, the 325 "baskets" – complete, abundant holiday meals for families in need – were all packed up and delivered for the holiday.

Of the 325, most (240) were delivered to eight different Boys & Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay locations, while another 70 were earmarked for families in east Hillsborough County connected to the Migrant Education Association.

In addition to meeting and exceeding the turkey goal – the extra turkeys were donated to food banks – Jesuit students raised a record $29,000+ to pay for all the sides and fixins, plus provide a gift card for every basket, as well as a soon-to-be delivered donation to Feeding Tampa Bay! The Mothers' Club collected kitchen towels, serving utensils, and oven mitts for every basket.

Congratulations to director of community service Noah Menendez '14 and thank you to all who helped make the Thanksgiving Basket Drive a phenomenal success!

To view 80 images from Thanksgiving Basket Drive 2025, go to the Facebook page Jesuit High School of Tampa.