The mood was celebratory on Oct. 24 as the Regional Food Bank hosted a press conference, with more than a dozen enthusiastic speakers, to announce it would launch a Thanksgiving food program in the wake of Equinox no longer holding its Thanksgiving Community Dinner — a tradition for more than half of a century.

“Close your eyes,” Tom Nardacci, chief executive officer of the Regional Food Bank, urged the crowd, “and just think about your favorite Thanksgiving memory or tradition personally. Just take a minute and think about that.”

For Nardacci it was “busting chops” with a favorite uncle, who has recently died.

“There’s families who, for years and years, they went to Equinox,” said Nardacci. “That was a tradition, you know, whether it was a single person, it was a family of a single mom or kids. That’s what they did. They look forward to that. We’ve got to make sure that we continue that.”

Equinox, Nardacci said, has “shifted what they’re doing,” and is concentrating on “working with their clients and the people that they serve year ’round.” He added, “They’re not a food bank.”

The 54-year tradition at Equinox was a sit-down meal prepared and served by volunteers on Thanksgiving Day.

The Food Bank program will provide 55 pounds of food to be prepared at home, distributed to people who come to one of 16 senior meal drop-off locations, including Carman Senior Apartments in Guilderland, or one of eight distribution pickup locations.

A table at the press conference displayed what a distribution packet would look like, including a turkey, a five-pound bag of potatoes, two cans of green beans, two boxes of stuffing, a can of cranberry sauce, two jars of gravy, a loaf of bread, a pie, a gallon-and-a-half of milk, eight cups of applesauce, a bag of fresh grapes, two pounds of walnuts, four pounds of almonds, two bags of raisins, two cans of salmon, a can of carrots, a bag of collards, a bottle of grape juice, and a bag of mixed fruits and nuts.

“We know that Thanksgiving hunger doesn’t end at six Thanksgiving evening …,” said Nardacci. “We know that people are going to go through hunger the next day, the following weekend. So we want to provide them enough food.”

In the six counties served by the food bank — Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady — 100,000 people are “experiencing food insecurity,” said Nardacci.

“That need is way closer than you think,” he said. “There’s people you know, who you know well, who are experiencing food insecurity. You may not know they’re experiencing that need, but they are. And they’re closer to you than you think.”

Nardacci went on, “Of the 100,000 people in these six counties that are food insecure, our plan is to serve, to reach 30,000 people in a single day. It’s an amazing, awesome effort.”

He had opened his speech by saying what he was most thankful for was the staff at the Regional Food Bank, which did not hesitate to support the Thanksgiving project.

He also said, “This operation is powered by 20,000 volunteers “who show up every day, shift every shift on our farm, in our volunteer center, at mass distribution sites.”

Nardacci went on, “There’s still 70,000 that still need to be served. Our agency partners, community groups, government, other people are trying to reach them, too. The sad part is we're not going to get to 100,000,” he said of the people without enough food across six counties.

“We’re just going to do our best,” said Nardacci. “We just can’t get to everyone, but we’re going to try our best.”

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Information about the meal pickup and distribution sites as well as about volunteer opportunities and ways to donate are online at regionalfoodbank.net.