Amador County – The Jackson Rancheria Casino & Hotel got into the holiday spirit recently in giving $15,000 to food banks in Amador and Calaveras counties. Jackson Rancheria Casino Vice President of Marketing Ron Olivero presented ceremonial checks of $7,500 each to Kathleen Harmon of Amador Interfaith Food Bank and Jeannie Hayward of Calaveras Food Bank. Carol Cook of the Casino marketing department said the “much needed funds” were the result of a recent promotion in which Jackson Rancheria pledged to donate $1 for every 25,000 points earned by Dreamcatcher’s Club members during a promotion period. The Jackson Rancheria Casino’s “Dreamcatcher’s Club” includes a reported 750,000 members, who accumulate points when they use their card at the casino. The Rancheria also has a “Shop Jackson” promotion, giving Dreamcatcher’s Club cardholders discounts at dozens of Jackson businesses. Harmon said the gift from the Rancheria goes toward Christmastime activities. She said what they work very hard at engaging the community, and some “donations are earmarked toward Christmas outreach.” Harmon has begun the annual turkey drive for needy families, asking shoppers at Safeway last week to purchase turkeys for the Interfaith Food Bank. Harmon said the “community is bringing turkeys that we can give out here,” at the Food Bank. She said Food Bank volunteers and its truck “were at Safeway last week because they were the ones that had them on sale.” They planned to do another turkey drive this Friday, with the help of members of the Amador County Board of Supervisors, but she expected to get rained out and she was not going to ask supervisors to work in the rain. Supervisors were going to help them load the truck on Friday. Harmon said the Food Bank this year is trying to get 1,000 turkeys to give to families in a “Thanksgiving Box” – a full meal for individuals and families who qualify. She said donations are still needed, in the form of shoppers purchasing turkeys for the Food Bank. She said “grocery stores want to be able to see that their customers are served with turkeys,” so Food Bank cannot purchase birds. Harmon said “Food Bank still needs the community involved because we are serving 4,000 people a month.” She said they are “still short 150 turkeys,” to get 1,000 birds this year, up 200 from what they gave out last year. The Interfaith Food Bank gets requests from families and individuals for thanksgiving dinners. She said they hope to serve them to “anybody that is income-qualified that asks for a thanksgiving box.” Local churches have adopted the community’s large families, and will give out 24-pound birds for family of 14 or more. Interfaith Food Bank is at 12181 Airport Road in Jackson. For information, call (209) 267-9006. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.