Bidwell Training Center preparing Thanksgiving meal kits as fundraiser

This meal kit delivers thankfulness.

Prepared by culinary students at Bidwell Training Center on Pittsburgh’s North Side, a “ready-to-serve” Thanksgiving dinner will be available for people to buy for themselves or donate to someone in need.

The Thanksgiving Feast package will include 14-16 pounds of oven-ready deboned and brined turkey, harvest spice glazed carrots, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy and pumpkin pie.

It will feed eight adults and a smaller option is available with half portions.

The idea is the brainchild of Anthony Taglieri, senior director of culinary arts and enterprise at Bidwell Training Center. He and 40 culinary students and six staff members will prepare the meals.

The students are part of a 12-month no-cost training program that teaches adults seeking to enter the culinary field the skills they’ll need for a career in food service.

For the fundraiser, they will learn the art of poultry butchery, various knife techniques, and the mathematics and time management required to plan and execute bulk cooking orders, Taglieri said.

Proceeds from the sales of the turkey meal kits will go to support education at Bidwell Training Center.

The turkeys will arrive frozen from Performance Foodservice in Mt. Pleasant. Taglieri will thaw, then debone them in a way that all the pieces stay connected.

For every six full or 12 half meals or a combination sold, Bidwell Training Center will donate one meal to a family in need.

Eligible families will be identified by partnering community organizations.

“This is such an excellent opportunity for the students,” said Kimberly Rassau, vice-president of Bidwell Training Center. “All the ingredients are fresh and it’s a homemade meal you can make right in your own kitchen.”

Taglieri created a YouTube video to show how to cook the meal. He shares his turkey instruction video for each meal kit recipient together with written instructions on how to finish the process Thanksgiving.

Taglieri said they have the capacity to make 60 this year.

Turkey is not a food everyone knows how to cook properly, mostly because people don’t make turkey at any other time than for a holiday meal, Taglieri said.

One of the biggest problems is thawing it in time.

Cooking a turkey is similar to preparing a roasted chicken but on a much larger scale. Taglieri said with a turkey’s body and different thicknesses, that one of the best ways to make it is to de-bone it and lay it flat over a bed of stuffing. It will also be easier to carve, he said.

“It creates the same meal of turkey and stuffing,” he said. “It just doesn’t have the football-like shape. It also takes less time to cook it. It will also be seasoned properly. Brining the birds adds flavor.”

Through Oct. 29, the price is $175 for a full and $90 for a half portion. The cost increases to $200 and $100 beginning Oct. 30 and to $225 and $115 Nov. 8-16. Meals can be picked up between 7:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Nov. 22 at Bidwell Training Center on 1815 Metropolitan Street, North Side.

Thanksgiving Feasts orders can be placed here.

Details: bidwelltraining.edu