This story was excerpted from Anthony DiComo’s Mets Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

As a native Venezuelan, Francisco Alvarez never celebrated Thanksgiving as a child. His first brush with the American holiday came last Friday at Part of the Solution in the Fordham Manor neighborhood of the Bronx. For much of an hour, Alvarez joined Mets employees in handing out turkeys to those in need. Many stopped for photos with the rookie catcher. 

“It means a lot,” Alvarez said through interpreter Alan Suriel. “I’ve grown to know a lot of people that also need, and I’ve been in that position of need sometimes where [people] have helped me even when they don’t have [much]. So it’s really important to be out here and to be able to help out the community.” 

Alvarez’s efforts were part of the team’s annual Metsgiving initiative, which this year organized Thanksgiving food distribution events in all five boroughs. Altogether, the Mets donated more than 7,500 turkeys to needy families through a $180,000 grant from the Amazin’ Mets Foundation. The club expected the program to feed over 61,000 underserved individuals. 

For the 22-year-old Alvarez, it was a chance to jump-start his philanthropic career at an age when many players have yet to make the Majors. 

“It feels good, because you know they’re going to spend days with their families with the things that they need,” Alvarez said. “To be out here with the Mets and be able to help them out, it feels good.”

As for his own Thanksgiving, Alvarez was not planning on being in New York to celebrate the holiday for the first time. But he does have a notable relationship with food, famously cooking teammate Brett Baty and his girlfriend a Venezuelan lasagna earlier this season. Asked if he might be interested in whipping up a Thanksgiving spread one day, Alvarez grinned and acknowledged it might not be the best idea. 

“My mom cooks better than I do,” he said, laughing, “so I’d prefer for her to cook.”