The 44th annual Turkey Brigade took place at Stew Leonard's in Yonkers on Thursday.

The store teamed up with the Yonkers officials, the Yonkers Police Department and the Yonkers Fire Department to do the heavy lifting.

"Any time we can connect with our community in a situation like this, we want to take advantage of it. Any time we can interact with them in a non-enforcement setting is great," explains Detective Sgt. Frank DiDomizio.

The Yonkers store donated 400 turkeys Thursday to various organizations, with each organization receiving 10 turkeys.

"Some of the organizations are for food banks, there are domestic violence shelters, a lot of veterans during the holidays that need a hot meal, said Andrew Hollis, the store's manager.

This includes organizations like the Human Development Services of Westchester.

"Food insecurity is a really big problem for the people we support, this really helps us to have holiday meals for the people that we serve. Organizations really do depend on donations during the holidays," said its CEO Kathy Pandekakes.

Greenburgh Academy, a special education school in Yonkers, is one of those organizations.

"Our students, they face a lot of food insecurity so this meal this turkey goes a long way to feed families who are in need," explained Samantha Peterkin, a social worker at the school.

The first responders and the Stew Leonard's employees say its events like this that really put everything in perspective.