Photo by Emma Delk First Presbyterian Church in Martins Ferry members help serve food during the conregations free Thanksgiving meal. From left are Sharon Porter, Pat Hartenstein and Tracy Mosca.

MARTINS FERRY — Members of the First Presbyterian Church in Martins Ferry were busy on Thursday preparing and serving eight turkeys, side dishes and desserts for community members to enjoy during their free Thanksgiving dinner.

During the two-hour event, congregants and volunteers served all the fixings for a Thanksgiving meal, including turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, noodles, green beans, applesauce, homemade cranberry sauce and desserts.

First Presbyterian Church member Beth Vickers, who organized the meal alongside her mother, Barb Vickers, and daughter, Breezy Vickers, said church members and volunteers began bringing in donations for the event last Friday. Beth Vickers had made the church her home since Tuesday morning to coordinate and prepare for the feast.

The meal was free and open to anyone who stopped by to pick up a plate. According to Barb Vickers, the goal was community outreach, not to gain new church members.

An hour into the event, which began at 11 a.m., more than 100 community members had enjoyed a meal or picked up a to-go box. With the church typically serving 100 to 125 meals during the event, Beth Vickers estimated this would be the highest attendance to the dinner since they re-opened the event to in-person dining after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re going to run out of noodles, I can tell you that now,” Beth Vickers said on Thursday. “We may run out of stuffing, but we shouldn’t run out of green beans or mashed potatoes.”

Though they were close to running out of some items, Beth Vickers said the event was going smoothly. She noted that having “a ton of church members” and volunteers outside the church step up to help with the event made the day easier for her.

“We’ve got a lot of people to help, so sometimes today I’ve just been sort of standing here with nothing to do,” Beth Vickers said. “Usually, by now, I’ve yelled at somebody or cried a little bit, so it’s been a good day so far.”

The Vickerses have organized the meal for the past eight years, taking over from Bill Sutton, who started the event more than 20 years ago. Sutton was inspired to give back to his community after his son Wes Sutton recovered from illness.

“Bill’s son was in intensive care, and he wanted to do something because God saved his son’s life,” Barb Vickers said. “He decided that this dinner would be his way of returning to God the help he gave his son.”

Though Bill Sutton now lives in South Carolina, he made the trip to Martins Ferry to help serve the meal alongside his son. Beth Vickers said her family would carry on the dinner tradition as long as they could to honor what Sutton started.

Barb Vickers noted the importance of providing a warm meal and a seat at a table for community members who may now have loved ones to dine with on Thanksgiving.

“There’s a lot of people that come to this outside of our church just because they don’t want to be anywhere else,” Barb Vickers said. “Last year, we had a whole bunch of people that just sat, talked and found fellowship. We don’t do this to gain church members but to be here as a resource in the community for those who may need it today.

Church member and volunteer Pat Hartenstein said she loved seeing the church members gather alongside community members at the meal. She noted that employees and volunteers from The Daily Bread, which donated food to the event, were also at the event on Thursday to help.

Hartenstein provided a turkey, an apple crumble pie and two pumpkin pies for the dinner. She also lent a hand to serve food and helped clean up at the event.

“This is just a wonderful opportunity for our community,” Hartenstein said. “It’s a really heartfelt project. It’s just a fellowship time for community members to intertwine with our church.”

Apart from spending time with church and community members, Hartenstein joked that she enjoyed the opportunity the meal gave her to enjoy two Thanksgiving meals, as she had plans to have dinner with her sister in Shadyside later Thursday evening.

“The need for this meal is out there, and it’s a meal for people that are hungry or might not have a family to eat with today,” Hartenstein added. “If someone is by themself feeling stuck in the four walls of their house, this gives them a chance to get out, intermingle and just be with their community.”