Photo by Gage Vota Mary Kay Ackerman volunteering at First Presbyterian Church’s annual free Thanksgiving dinner with Bonnie Cook standing to her right.

MARTINS FERRY — First Presbyterian Church provided free meals to residents on Thanksgiving afternoon.

Organizer and Church Elder Barbara Vickers said she’s spent the past 10 years organizing the event while her daughter Beth Vickers and granddaughter Breezy Vickers cooks the entire dinner for the residents.

She added that, 30 years ago, the event was started by Bill Sutton and when he moved to South Carolina 10 years ago, he passed Vickers the torch.

“He started this thing because his son was in intensive care, and he told God that if his son survived, he would do something for the community,” Vickers said. “His son was a chef, and so they created this dinner.”

Vickers added that this year’s dinner is the biggest one that she’s hosted.

“This year, especially with the lack of (SNAP benefits) and everything, people were in need, and this has just been outstanding turnout,” she said. “People come and they sit and chat and carry on and that’s what it’s all about. I mean, we’re not asking them to come to church with us or anything. Just enjoy a meal. Have some time with friends, because I know there’s a lot of people that don’t have anybody.”

In preparation for the expected increase in attendance, Breezy Vickers said that they increased the food purchased by 25%.

“We made 10 turkeys instead of eight and we made double green beans,” she said. “We had two more turkeys than we usually do but all of the turkeys this year were bigger, like 20 pounds.”

Beth Vickers added that the St. Clairsville VFW Chapter 5356 donated $1,000 to the church to help cover the cost of food for the event.

“That donation helped with the additional food as well as covered almost the entire meal and we can’t thank them enough,” she said.

Beth Vickers and Breezy Vickers have been preparing the food for the past two days, Beth Vickers said that the duo brought cots to sleep at the church since Tuesday to be able to spend their entire day and night preparing the dinner.

“This is all homemade. I mean, she [Breezy] makes the cranberry sauce homemade. I make the applesauce, green beans, and we put bacon and onion in it,” Beth Vickers said. “I try to make it as close to home as possible. And then all of the church ladies donated the desserts.

Barbara Vickers added that the event had 20 volunteers who spent their Thanksgiving day providing meals to the community for free.