Giving for Thanksgiving: Churches, VFD provide food, meals

Leading up to Thanksgiving, several groups in Cullman County were putting the “giving” in the holiday, providing much-needed meals to the community.

Sardis Baptist Church saw how successful the Trimble Fire Department was with its drive-thru trick-or-treating and asked the department if it wanted to partner for a first-ever Thanksgiving meal drive thru.

On Halloween, they had about 300 cars come through. As of 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, the church volunteers and firefighters – with support from Bruce Whitlock of Whitlock’s General Store – had doled out more than 200 meals.

“We planned on about 150 plates,” said Pastor Jonathan Reid. “We’ve had north of 200 so far.”

“We really felt that we needed to do something for the community,” said Fire Chief Adam Taylor.

Each car received a turkey, ham or chicken finger plate with all the sides and a Bible, courtesy of the church.

“We want to give people hope,” said Reid. “It’s been a tough year but people need to understand that there is hope and that’s what the Bible gives: hope through Jesus Christ.”

Taylor and Reid said that while this was the first-time they’ve done a drive-thru Thanksgiving, it likely won’t be the last, pandemic or no.

“We had more people show up for this than we do for our usual sit-down Thanksgiving dinner,” said Reid. 

First Presbyterian Church in Cullman was also handing out food for Thanksgiving for the first time on Wednesday.

Congregant Nathan Woodard said he brought the idea up in a meeting of the elders, noting the food need in the community.

Church members got behind the idea and a team handed out boxes of nonperishable items that included canned hams, sweet potatoes, green beans, rice or dried beans, cereal, stuffing, cookies and fruit cocktails. 

“We just wanted to help out the families that need it,” said Woodard.

Pastor David Palmer said the church will be giving boxes of food for Christmas too, and will be setting a date for that soon.