Being far from family was no obstacle to a great Thanksgiving dinner at St. John’s Evangelical Protestant Church Thursday, where a week’s worth of preparation by local volunteers and churches culminated in the Grover Reeves Community Thanksgiving Meal. 

For the 25th year, the event provided local residents who didn’t have Thanksgiving plans — or who simply were in the mood to socialize — a free lunchtime meal with all the traditional Thanksgiving staples: turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, and lots more.

Conceived by the late Grover Reeves, a First Baptist church member who made the project his ministry, the annual event reaches out to people in the community who lack either the means, or the occasion, to whip up a full-fledged Thanksgiving dinner of their own. 

With plenty of time still left before the event’s 1 p.m. end Thursday, volunteers estimated they’d already served up about 1,500 prepared meals, either for on-site dining or for takeout.

Funded and provisioned by local churches and staffed by volunteers, the get-together is now hosted annually in St. Johns’ Christ Hall fellowship center, after finally outgrowing its longtime home at First Baptist Church last year.