In your home, Thanksgiving probably includes all your family members and relatives gathered around a huge table, covered with delicious food, but not everyone has that luxury.

Many families in our community have to face financial stress, which makes a Thanksgiving dinner just not possible.

But there is a way that you can help better the lives of families within our local community.

Locally and nationally, there are numerous organizations that are hosting Thanksgiving Food Drives. Your support of these events will help make a fulfilling holiday possible for a multitude of families this season. Some of these organizations include the Maryland Food Bank, Cornerstones, and The Door.

Each food drive encourages you to drop off non-perishable food items, such as canned foods, at the organization’s selected location or other drop-off points throughout the community.

Another food drive happening in the community is run by Cub Scouts, Pack 369. Their project is leaving plastic shopping bags with food drive directions on the mailboxes of every house in the suburban neighborhoods of the community.

Citizens fill up the bags with non-perishable canned food items and put the bags back outside on their porch on the day scheduled for pick-up. The Cub Scouts then come back to those houses and pick up the food-filled shopping bags.

The Cub Scouts then distribute the gathered food unto families who cannot have a Thanksgiving dinner out of their own pocket.

High School Senior Ryan Davis, a former Cub Scout who has participated in this event said, “Doing the food drive to help families in need taught us Cub Scouts about being more compassionate and respectful to members of the community, which are essential characteristics of being a Boy Scout of America.”

At LHS, the SGA organized a turkey drive and delivered meals to families on November 18.  Each club or class was challenged to raise $25 to purchase a meal for a local family in need.  This year, the SGA donated 23 turkey dinners.  The food for each family included a turkey, rolls, corn, green beans, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, and brownies.

Greenridge Baptist Church in Clarksburg, Maryland, has a Thanksgiving Dinner every single year a couple days before Thanksgiving Day, where everyone is welcome to come and enjoy a free Thanksgiving meal and service.

Members of GBC volunteer to come to the Thanksgiving dinner and serve the many guests that attend. The volunteers go out and buy the ingredients for the food, make the meals, and serve the hot food to the people from all around the community who come to the dinner.

Amy Green is a college student and a member of Greenridge Baptist Church who participated in the Thanksgiving dinner. She said, “I really love having the Thanksgiving dinner at the church because I can meet people from all walks of life and learn about them and what they do while enjoying a warm dinner together.”

Not everyone is as fortunate as you. For some people, a Thanksgiving dinner doesn’t even exist. But your support of any of these food drives happening will guarantee a hearty meal for families who would not be having one otherwise.