FINDLAY, Ohio — For 16 years, a church in Findlay has made sure everyone in their community has a chance to have a proper Thanksgiving Day meal.
Each year, Stonebridge Church in Findlay offers "Community Thanksgiving Day Meals", free of charge.
The service grew from only in-house dining, to delivery and recently, to drive-through pickup.
Last year Stonebridge served 2,200 meals.
This year, the group of church volunteers knew they had a difficult task for Thanksgiving during a pandemic.
"We looked at it and wondered if this was something that we could do. And we determined that, with all of the conditions and circumstances, it would probably be a lot more difficult," explained Michael Wise, Lead Pastor at Stonebridge Church. "But, we're people of faith. And so, we said we should do it, because it is hard,"
So this Thursday, Stonebridge will once again be offering a free Thanksgiving Day meal to anyone.
With no dine-in option, all meals will have to be preordered for delivery or in-person pick up.
Volunteers have been busy all week preparing the estimated 2,500 meals.
Church leaders believe this annual act of charity ultimately does more good for the community as a whole beyond just Thanksgiving Day.
"We want to do good, not just to feed people one day a year, but we also want to encourage people that doing good is not going out of style. And we're not going to let anything stop us taking care of one another," said Wise.
The deadline to order a Thanksgiving Day meal from Stonebridge Church to be delivered is Tuesday, Nov. 24 at noon. You must live within Findlay city limits.
Meals will be available for pick-up on Thursday, Nov. 26 from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the church. Delivery will start that morning.
You can place your order at their website for the Free Community Thanksgiving Meal.