POOLER, Ga. (WSAV) - A group of seniors in Pooler said they were worried they might not be able to pull off a Thanksgiving food giveaway for their neighbors on Friday after it was disrupted by building management.
"They just don't have the money, and it takes every little penny they've got to stretch as far as they try to stretch it," Ellen Corley, a Pinewood Village resident and event volunteer, said. "So, any food that is donated to them is certainly a help. It's a very big help."
Seniors lined up in their cars parking lot of the Pinewood Village apartment complex, waiting to pick up their Thanksgiving turkeys.
"We do food distributions at least once a month. This time we're doing it twice a month, and they were telling us we could not use the community facilities, " Revardale Middleton, another Pinewood Village resident and the event organizer, said.
Middleton works with the GP3 ministry, the group that organizes the giveaways.
She said the property manager claimed the space had already been reserved for that day.
"The regional manager who's inside there as well, she called and verified that yes, you will be able to get into the clubhouse at eight today," Middleton said. "The maintenance man has to open it up. So, he did. He opened it up for me. We got in there this morning, started setting up. Then, the property manager on-site came in and told us we have to get everything out of there."
However, volunteers said that was quite a bit for them to move since most of them are over 65 years old.
"Now we've got to undo everything," Corley said, "and then when they get through with their function go back in there and re-do? I can't do it. I can't do it, and the others aren't going to do it either."
Middleton said that her group normally does two food giveaways for Thanksgiving, one with turkeys and a second for perishable items.
"The ladies here, we're going to have to put these turkeys," Middleton said. "You see how big these turkeys are…We're going to have to work to do that now because we don't have any help. Everything has been last-minute, just pushing us, pushing us, pushing us. So, that's really what has impeded our progress today."
Middleton said the management at Pinewood Village did offer to help them set the perishable items back up for Saturday morning. The Saturday giveaway will be at 11 a.m.
WSAV spoke with the property manager on site and was told she had no comment. We also contacted the company that manages Pinewood Village, Gateway Management Company, and have not yet received a response.