Diary

From Kennedy to Obama, family business puts a turkey on the president's table

By Giulia Cambieri

Jaindl Turkey Farm has given the US president and his family two of its festive birds during the annual National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation, a tradition the family business has been following for the past 50 years.

The farm, which sells about 750,000 turkeys every year, gave Barack Obama two dressed turkeys that the president will donate to a local organisation that helps feed the poor.

Based in Orefield, Pennsylvania, Jaindl Turkey Farm started the tradition in 1962, when Fred Jaindl, son of farm founder John Jaindl, won the contest organised every year by the National Turkey Federation and was allowed to present a breed to John F Kennedy.

Since then, the Jaindl family has been sending turkeys to the president every year.

Founded in the early 1930s, the farm today is the country’s biggest family-owned turkey producer. Third-generation David Jaindl, 55, took over the family business in 1980, when he became general manager of the company. 

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