Brothers and Sisters Unisex Salon will hold a community-wide free Thanksgiving meal at their salon on 1276 Dewey Avenue. This meal will be held from 8a to 1p.m. Free groceries, haircuts for children under 10 and half-off haircuts for men will also be available to the public during this time.

The holidays can be especially hard for families suffering from hunger and food insecurity. But Devon Reynolds, co-owner of Brothers & Sisters Unisex Salon, hope to bring joy to locals’ holidays with his “Cut the Hunger” community food drive. And this year, he said he wants to go one step further and actually feed people.

At his salon, and at five other barbershops and salons across the city, Reynolds is collecting non-perishable food items. He said he plans to donate many of the non-perishables to local food pantries and last year, Reynolds was able to donate 20 pounds of food to Open Door Mission. However, he said this year, he wants to cook some of the donated food and, instead, open the doors of his salon for a Thanksgiving meal that the community is invited to.

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“You have a lot of families that are struggling financially,” he said, explaining the motivation behind Cut the Hunger. “Also, a lot of people don’t have families out here so I’m trying to do more for the community I want to give more than I take.”

The meal is completely open to the community. Reynolds said he plans to gather his entire staff, and even some of their family members, to help him prepare the food. And to ensure he has enough, Brothers & Sisters will be offering free haircuts in exchange for frozen turkeys the week of Thanksgiving.

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Reynolds said he doesn’t need much from the community except donations and for them to show up, however, he does welcome any help cooking and collecting food. Any organizations interested can contact Reynolds to receive their own dropbox.

According to Foodlink’s 2015 Map the Meal Gap study, 13.5 percent of Monroe County residents are food insecure, and this number is only higher in the city of Rochester. The county statistic is relatively close to the national figure: 13 percent, according to Feeding America, but concentrated poverty and poor access to nutritious food in the city contribute to the increase. Food insecurity is defined by the United States Department of Agriculture as not being able to have reliable access to the amount of affordable and nutritious food you need.

Participating salons include: Plussh Salon, Changing Faces Barbershop, Madd Cutts, Ronnie’s Kids Kuts and Wilcox & Son’s.