BERNARDSTON — In his ninth year of providing Thanksgiving meals to residents, local DJ Robert “Bobby C” Campbell is helping to feed an estimated 3,000 people across Franklin County.

On Friday afternoon, Campbell and a group of volunteers gathered outside the Bernardston Senior Center to unload thousands of pounds of carrots, squash, stuffing, cranberry sauce, apple pie — pretty much everything needed to make a festive feast — from a Foster’s Supermarket truck and pass it out to families in need. The only thing missing was turkey, which recipients will be able to buy for themselves using Stop & Shop gift cards that were also being distributed.

Campbell said he was inspired to provide Thanksgiving meals after seeing how many community members struggle with food insecurity. He wanted to help give them a good meal for the holidays.

“We had to make some changes. There were just some people that were really suffering,” Campbell said.

Claudia Hernandez, a developmental specialist with ServiceNet’s REACH program, an early intervention program for children up to 3 years old who face various risk factors or developmental delays, stopped by the distribution on Friday to pick up meals for 12 REACH program families. She said she was grateful for the donations from Campbell and community members that are supporting families who “otherwise would not have the money to have a Thanksgiving dinner.”

Campbell has been collecting donations since 2015, allowing him to purchase and distribute food for Thanksgiving meals. More than $10,000 was raised this year, allowing 150 families to receive complete meal kits. Even more families are being fed through meal programs, such as those offered by Stone Soup Café and the Salvation Army, that Campbell sponsors.

This year, in addition to distributing meals to a list of families and writing checks to sponsor community meals hosted by different organizations, Campbell is also donating produce directly to a few food pantries, further extending the reach of the effort.

“When we started this program, we fed 50 people. This year, we’re going to feed over 3,000 for the first time,” Campbell said. “What we did this year is we decided that we were gonna help out some of the food pantries.”

Campbell donated 100 of each Thanksgiving meal ingredient to the Blessed Sacrament Church Bread of Life program in Greenfield, the Franklin Area Survival Center in Turners Falls and the Northfield Food Pantry. He said donating the ingredients rather than premade meals ensures people not only get to have a holiday meal, but get fresh ingredients from local stores and farmstands, and get to participate in the holiday tradition of cooking a feast with their families.

“These people are not going to have to worry about a box of instant potatoes or a can of carrots,” Campbell said. “They’re gonna get real carrots, real butternut squash, real potatoes.”

“They get everything — the squash, potatoes, stuffing,” Hernandez said. “It’s really a homemade meal.”

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.