Volunteers will give up a big chunk of their Thanksgiving Day to make sure others enjoy the holiday.

Lampeter United Methodist Church (UMC) will host a free Thanksgiving meal on Thursday, Nov. 27, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the church, 1101 Village Road, Lancaster. Diners must register by calling the church office at 717-464-4161; the deadline is Thursday, Nov. 13.

"A certain limited number will be able to have meals delivered to them," said Sheila Moore, who helps organize the event along with Anne Reinert. "Our intent is to get the community to come in here and socialize and fellowship with us. For our homebound members of Lampeter, we're going to deliver Thanksgiving meals for the folks that are around."

The meal is sponsored by the church's social outreach and social witness team in conjunction with the Soup Angels, a group of Lampeter UMC congregants who provide free food throughout the year.

"We have had more than 50 people who have volunteered in some capacity for the Soup Angels over the last 20 months since we started," said Moore. "That would include people that actually volunteer the day of the event. It would include people that behind the scenes make soup or make cookies or donate cash to the church on behalf of the Soup Angels."

The Soup Angels get help from members of New Creation United Methodist Church and Covenant Methodist Church, associates from Weis Markets in Willow Street, and high school students from Lampeter-Strasburg and Lancaster County Academy.

The Thanksgiving meal menu will include turkey, gravy, homemade mashed potatoes and stuffing, vegetables, and cranberry sauce. There will be apple and pumpkin pies for dessert.

"We are also taking donations, so if there's anybody out there that would like to call the church to donate a turkey or want to make something to help us out, they are more than welcome," Reinert said.

Lampeter UMC previously held an annual Thanksgiving meal, but it was discontinued after COVID. "Last year was the reinvention of it," Moore said, "We were getting the call, for doing this and pastor (John Smith) said, 'Go ahead and run with it.' So we formed a committee."

Lampeter UMC volunteers enjoy serving members of the community. "We have a core group of folks that like to do these kind of ministries," said Moore. "They like to cook. They like to distribute food. (On Oct. 6), the Soup Angels did 100 meals. (On Oct. 7), the Soup Angels (planned to do) 75 meals. So it's an ongoing group of people that help out in various capacities, and the Thanksgiving meal is a natural extension of that, to be able to give people a place to come that might otherwise sit home and eat a TV dinner."

The church members' motivation is simple. "This is another God thing," said Reinert. "It's the same thing with how Soup Angels started. It was a push. It was like a voice, a more spiritual calling-type thing, and it just took off. Last year, we had a really good time. We had a bunch of people show up."

Moore added, "It's a good mix for the kids from the community and for church members. It's an opportunity for community to come in and meet and talk and make new friends with folks that are already here at the church."

Following last year's Thanksgiving meal, the volunteers had their own celebration. "When we were all done and everybody left, then we all got together, and we sat down, and we ate a special meal together," said Reinert. "We had a Friendsgiving, and we went around telling each other what we were all thankful for. That was nice. Then we went home and did it all over again and went into turkey comas."

Lampeter UMC also hosts a free community meal from 5 to 6:15 p.m. on the first Wednesday of the month while school is in session. According to the organizers, the Thanksgiving meal and monthly community meal are open to everybody at no cost and that people are not expected to begin attending Lampeter UMC. They emphasized that all are welcome, no matter their walks of life.