This story was excerpted from Anne Rogers’ Royals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

KANSAS CITY -- The Royals’ season of giving is in full swing, and this week they partnered again with businesses around Kansas City to help feed as many families as possible on Thanksgiving.

“Turkey Tuesday,” an annual food drive led by The Know Joey Foundation that has strived to feed families for the past 16 years, was held Tuesday at the Royals Urban Youth Academy. And on Wednesday, over 700 Thanksgiving meals will be distributed to families who preregistered and come by the UYA. “Win Wednesday” will not only include the food distribution, but also physical and mental health resources for families and individuals.

Families wanting to pick up food Wednesday need to register here to make sure they’re connected with the right resources. The event begins at 10 a.m. at the UYA.

“It’s an opportunity to come in, grab a meal and make their lives just a little bit easier,” UYA director Donease Smith said. “Anyone can come in, open to all, as long as we still have turkeys. They tell me it goes pretty fast. This is another important part of what we do here. Not only do we get to teach baseball and softball, but we get to partner with businesses in the community and make an impact around Kansas City.”

“From 16 years ago to now, we felt the need,” added Joey Thomas, founder of The Know Joey Foundation. “In many ways, it’s even greater now. As we’ve grown, the need has grown.”

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 17 million US households (12.8%) were food insecure in 2022, an increase of 3.5 million households from ’21. This means that food insecurity is now at its highest since ’14. This report stated that “families that took the survey indicated they were worried they would run out of money before buying food they needed, were unable to afford nutritious meals and had to cut back on the amount of food they and their children ate because of their limited resources.”

Harvesters, a Kansas City food bank that partnered with Know Joey and the Royals for Turkey Tuesday this year, estimates similar increases in the Kansas City area.

“The need is super high,” Harvesters communications manager Matt Hamer said. “Donations are also down for the same reasons the need is high. But we’re still optimistic about helping the community. Events like this remind us that the community is still coming to bat for each other. We’re lucky to be a part of it and lucky to partner with organizations like Know Joey and the Royals, who are very passionate about the same things that we are.”

The Royals have supported Turkey Tuesday for several years and have hosted the food drive at the UYA the past two years. The organization collected food items from employees at Kauffman Stadium over the past few weeks to donate as part of the community impact department’s season of giving initiative. Other ways the Royals are giving back during this initiative include volunteering at the Girls on the Run 5K in early November and spending time packing apples at Harvesters to send out to Kansas City families. According to Harvesters, the Royals -- including manager Matt Quatraro -- packed 7,110 pounds of apples.

In December, the Royals will send volunteers to partner with Lead to Read KC, a literacy program that supports students’ social, emotional and reading skills.

Both Girls on the Run and Lead to Read are groups that are focused around the Royals’ community impact pillars -- literacy and physical activity.

“Those are two big buckets, but we’ve come up with key performance indicators for each one that we want to see in five years to say, ‘Hey, all of this work we’ve done has led to kids in Kansas City being 35% more physically active than they were before, and that we now lead the state in literacy growth,’” said Luis Maes, the Royals’ director of community impact. “There are tons of causes we will continue to support, but those are two big areas for our department to think about and focus on.”

Turkey Tuesday kick-started it all. And the work done by the Royals, Harvesters, Know Joey and everyone who donated gave Kansas City families something to be thankful for on Thursday.

“The great thing is we’re working with different parts of the community,” Thomas said. “On Tuesday, we get to work with people that are in a position to give. And then on Wednesday, we work with a body of people that are in a position of need. It’s about combining those two worlds and making sure everybody gets the services and resources they need.”