BRUSSELS (AP) — Senior officials from Sweden and Turkey will gather at NATO headquarters on Thursday to examine Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s objections to the Nordic country joining the military alliance and to see what more, if anything, can be done to break the deadlock.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will lead the meeting, which will involve the countries’ foreign ministers, intelligence chiefs and national security advisers. Top officials from Finland, which joined NATO in April after itself addressing Turkish concerns, will also take part.

Fearing for their security, Sweden and neighboring Finland ended their longstanding policy of military nonalignment after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and both applied for NATO membership.

President Joe Biden welcomed Sweden’s prime minister to the White House on Wednesday in a show of solidarity as the United States ramped up pressure for the Nordic nation’s entry into NATO ahead of the alliance’s two-day summit starting next Tuesday.

Only Turkey and Hungary are delaying Sweden’s membership. The other 29 allies, Stoltenberg and Sweden have all said the Nordic country has done enough to satisfy Turkey’s demands. Sweden has changed its anti-terror laws and lifted an arms embargo on Turkey, among other concessions.

But Turkey accuses Sweden of being too lenient toward groups that Ankara says pose a security threat, including militant Kurdish groups and people associated with a 2016 coup attempt. NATO requires the unanimous approval of all 31 members to expand.

Hungary is also holding up approval of Sweden’s candidacy but has never clearly stated publicly what its concerns are. NATO officials expect that Hungary will follow suit once Turkey lifts its objections.

At a European Union summit last week, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Hungary had given assurances that it would not hold things up. “Twice, I have spoken to Prime Minister (Viktor) Orban,” Kristersson told reporters. “Both times he has confirmed that Hungary will not delay.”

Turkey is a different matter. A Quran-burning protest, at which the media vastly outnumbered the participants, outside a mosque in Stockholm has fueled tensions. Erdogan criticized Sweden last week for allowing it. Police permitted the protest citing freedom of speech after a court overturned a ban on a similar burning of the Muslim holy book.

It’s unclear exactly what Turkey objects to, and Thursday’s meeting is designed to flesh that out. Erdogan railed against Sweden while on the campaign trail for elections in May, and NATO officials had expected him to relent after he was reelected.

Erdogan is also seeking upgraded F-16 fighter jets from the U.S., but Biden has suggested that Sweden’s membership should be endorsed first.

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Soboba Foundation President Dondi Silvas was one of many volunteers at the two events, held on Nov. 20 and Nov. 21. She was thankful for all the other volunteers that showed up to help make both days a huge success.

“For me personally, being able to hand out Thanksgiving dinners to families in our valley has truly been a humbling experience,” she said. “2020 has been crazy and everyone has experienced difficult times but seeing the gratitude on the faces of families receiving these Thanksgiving dinners was such a blessing. I want to give a special thank you to Soboba’s Sponsorship Coordinator Andrew Vallejos and the Food and Beverage team at the Soboba Casino Resort plus a huge shoutout to Sysco Foods for working diligently on our request to help make Soboba Foundation’s dream a reality.”

The meal box pickups began at 1 p.m. on Nov. 20 at the Hemet Unified School District office as previously identified families who were given vouchers lined up to drive through and receive their meal boxes that contained cans of yams, cranberry sauce, corn, green beans and gravy. Dinner rolls and bags of cornbread stuffing mix filled out the pre-packaged boxes. Frozen items were delivered to pallets as the event began so that each family also received a 22-pound turkey, a bag of seasoned mashed potatoes and a pumpkin pie.

Soboba Tribal Council Sergeant at arms Daniel Valdez stayed busy loading meal boxes into trunks and trucks for Hemet families during the four-hour giveaway.

“I love that Soboba gives back as much as it does – it’s great to help out the community,” he said.

Although Vince Record works at SJUSD, he volunteered to work traffic control during HUSD’s drive-thru event. He is the current chairman of Hemet San Jacinto Chamber of Commerce, which supports both districts and businesses within both cities. About five other chamber board members volunteered at both events.

“We appreciate the generosity of Soboba and we are happy to do what we can to help – it’s a worthy cause,” he said.

Miriam Ortiz, a Parent Engagement Specialist at HUSD, said most school sites have parent liaisons who were able to identify their neediest families. Despite distance learning being in place, staff has done what it can to stay in touch with students.

“For people in my type of role, it’s heartbreaking not to be able to connect families to resources,” she said. “That’s why today is so important. We have had to say ‘no’ so many times this year it’s exciting to be able to say ‘yes’ to something for them.”

Ortiz said more than 900 turkey meal boxes were prepared to give out to families with students at the Hemet-area schools and that HUSD’s nutrition services staff delivered 50 meal boxes to outlying schools in Idyllwild and Anza.

“We are extremely grateful for the generous donation that we received from the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians Foundation, our community partners that served as volunteers, and all of the HUSD staff that made this joyful event possible,” she said.

Working with local agencies, the Soboba Foundation was also able to donate meal boxes to needy families that don’t have children attending schools in either district. Churches and other nonprofits were able to identify people who are struggling and were grateful to be included. Valley Community Pantry Executive Director Jim Lineberger said he was surprised and excited to receive the complete meal boxes. He said that because of COVID his agency did not receive an expected 175 turkeys, so this donation was a real blessing. He said the 250 meals were primarily given to people whose businesses were affected by COVID, such as cooks, waitresses and waiters currently not able to work.

“Soboba has always been one of the largest supporters of our organization,” Lineberger said. “They always seem to come through when sometimes we feel nothing will happen this year. We love the long partnership and not just what they do for us, but for this entire valley.”

The following day, a drive-thru event was held at San Jacinto High School. Cars were greeted by SJUSD staff with festive signs as they drove in front of the Soboba Aquatic Center to redeem vouchers provided to the students’ families. The parking lot was set up in an assembly line fashion, starting with an empty box that was wheeled on a cart to each stop to have one of the “trimmings” added. About 150 volunteers turned out to assist in the process and greet families as they drove through the line while upbeat music played from loudspeakers.

Riverside County Sheriff’s Captain Leonard Purvis said he felt the giveaways were an excellent way for the communities to come together for something positive.

“I’m so happy to see all the smiles as the vehicles pull up,” he said. “This is the real deal. Soboba doesn’t just donate – they are not shy about getting in and digging deep with everyone chipping in. There are Tribal Council members here and some from the Soboba Foundation – it’s amazing.”

Soboba Tribal Council Chairman Isaiah Vivanco said last year only turkeys were given away.

“We had this idea that with everything going on this year, we wanted to make a bigger difference in the community and provide entire Thanksgiving meals,” he said. “We worked in partnership with the cities and school districts like we’ve done in the past – it’s just bigger than before. It’s awesome that we have all this support here.”

Tribal Council Secretary Monica Herrera said she was happy to help out for such a good cause and felt the logistics were well thought out, allowing hundreds of vehicles to move through the lines quickly and efficiently.

“Soboba is always there to help out the community – it’s great,” San Jacinto Deputy City Manager Tom Prill said as he added dinner rolls to the passing meal boxes.

A mom whose child attends an SJUSD school contacted school board member Jasmin Rubio to share her gratitude.

“I was so beyond touched by this act of kindness,” the young mother wrote. “I was in tears by the time they were loading up my car. I was truly blessed, as was my family. I felt so loved; it made my heart so glad. I can’t thank Soboba and the school district for everything they did. It truly meant the world to us. We all miss normal, but my heart was filled today.”

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The Soboba Foundation helped local families give thanks this season by providing turkeys to those most in need. This is the first year that the nonprofit arm of the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians has hosted a turkey distribution event. The Foundation’s sponsorship coordinator, Andrew Vallejos said the logistics of undertaking such an operation is always a challenge.  “But we knew if we reached out to the two school districts in the valley, they would help us make it happen,” he said.

By accessing the districts’ parent resource staff and parent liaisons at each school site, those most in need were easily and quickly identified. Each school site received an amount of turkeys based on its pupil enrollment with 330, 11-plus-pound turkeys designated for each district.

Nelida Gonzalez is a community liaison for San Jacinto Elementary School and commented on what a blessing it was to have Soboba reach out to them as they did. Working directly with the families of students at her school, her job is to be observant and be there to help with resources and guidance when needed.  “As liaisons, we help families overcome obstacles so our students can concentrate on their education,” she said. “When told we would be fortunate enough to receive these donations, I reached out to our teachers first, then to our counselors and then to our administration, to identify the 25 most needy.”

Gonzalez said when she gave out the vouchers to parents, some cried and one just hugged her.

“We’ve got families going through tough times and this was something they needed,” she said. “One family had their house burn down in August and they are still in the process of recovering from that. There are many different reasons they are in need, but all of their stories really make your heart warm.”

Giovanni Hernandez is the liaison for the San Jacinto Head Start/State Preschool whose campus is adjacent to San Jacinto Elementary. He said that a spreadsheet allowed the schools to easily ascertain families with students at multiple schools in the district to be sure they were maximizing the donations.

“We are very appreciative and thankful that we can do this and to be here giving it to them directly is so nice–such a great feeling,” Hernandez said.

Soboba Foundation’s Vice President Dondi Silvas started at 9 a.m. to help staff from San Jacinto High School distribute its 90 turkeys.

“I’m very grateful we were able to do this,” she said. “We’re very blessed to be able to help the community and I enjoy doing it. We also do the toy drive each year, which benefits families in our valley and beyond. We expanded it this year for an extra week because we received so many requests for donations.”

Two more dates for the Toy Drive will be Dec. 3 and Dec. 10 from 12 to 8 p.m. Toys valued at $20 or more can be taken to the new Soboba Casino Resort Event Center to be redeemed for $40 in free slot play.

In about three hour’s time, all turkeys had been distributed and district personnel were headed home.

“This morning went amazingly smooth for the first year!” said Jacob Briones, Soboba Foundation Treasurer. “Andrew Vallejos never disappoints with his organizational skills. The school districts and all the volunteers helped make this morning great. I definitely look forward to next year!”

Briones is also a Fire Captain with the Soboba Fire Department and brought three other members with him to help unload the frozen turkeys from refrigerated trucks to small, wheeled bins that could be kept at each school site table for easier pick up.

Young children who accompanied their parent(s) in redeeming their turkey voucher were invited to explore the inside of the Soboba fire engine parked at the San Jacinto Unified School District warehouse and offices where the Nov. 23 event was held.

Schools will be closed for this entire week to celebrate Thanksgiving but for the few families that couldn’t make it to the pick-up event, volunteers agreed to make arrangements to meet them before Thursday at the school site to ensure they have their turkey for the special day.

Miriam Ortiz is a Parent Engagement Specialist with Hemet Unified School District and worked with her team of parent liaisons to determine which families among the 28 school sites would receive a turkey donation. With more than 87 percent of the district’s population considered to be socioeconomically disadvantaged, she said every little bit helps.  Ortiz added that she also appreciated the fact that Soboba helped with transporting turkeys to outlying schools within her district.  “It would have been a hardship for families from our Idyllwild and Anza schools to drive here this morning, so we are thankful that the tribe offered to help out with this,” she said.

Ortiz said her department dedicates all its efforts to supporting parents so they can in turn be better advocates for their children.  “Today really kicked off the holiday spirit for me,” she said. “And it’s exciting that we have been able to strengthen our partnership with Soboba.”

HUSD’s Tahquitz High School staff leveraged this opportunity to help even more. Associated Student Body’s Lee Jones and parent Liaison Esmeralda Chavez collected $500 in cash donations from other staff members to put together all the fixings for each of the 24 families from their school.

A disposable roasting pan, canned goods, stuffing, gravy, fresh potatoes, eggs and butter were purchased and put together in a complete package for each family picking up a turkey.

Dawn Lawrence, who handles communications for SJUSD, said this event couldn’t have come at a better time for students in her district.  “When you have a mother who cries when she gets her voucher because she had just lost her job a week ago, it’s a game changer,” she said. “Our district offers free breakfast and lunch for students so when they are off for a week at Thanksgiving and three weeks at Christmas, families have to adjust their budgets for these times. For most families, these turkeys will last for more than one meal. Of course, we couldn’t have done any of this without Soboba.”

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