Why some L.A. food banks are handing out Thanksgiving chickens this year
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The LA Weekly
LOS ANGELES – It has become somewhat of a tradition for LA food banks to hand out turkeys, ducks and the occasional guinea hen on Thanksgiving.
But on Thanksgiving Day, after a weekend of festivities, it didn’t take long for LA food bank Community Food Bank for Central LA to start finding the poultry to be more than just the usual.
“They have a lot of turkeys. And then all of a sudden out of nowhere they found a guinea hen in their kitchen, and then we get to the chicken,” Jennifer Kranz told the Weekly.
Indeed, in what should have been a relatively straightforward day in the life of Community Food Bankers of Central California, one of its managers, Amy Miller, had to track down four turkeys one day — all from separate farms.
The farm that gave them the turkeys, however, came with a note: “We don’t have any guinea hens in stock right now because we are trying to find the guinea hen.”
That didn’t deter Miller from bringing the guinea hen to the party, and in turn, Community Food Bank of Central California will be handing out more than a dozen guinea hens this year.
“Guinea hens are a lot trickier to find,” Miller said.
It turns out, guinea hens are a lot trickier to find too.
They are more expensive than the typical guinea hen, and while guinea hens can be found at many Los Angeles grocery stores, many don’t carry them.
And they aren’t just expensive.
Guinea hens are also a lot harder to find, and because of their hardy nature, a guinea hen can cost twice as much as a conventional chicken, the LA Weekly found.
Guinea hens can also cost more than five times more than a standard chicken, which is why there are so many of them ending up at food banks.
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