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SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCBD) – Organizers gave away free Thanksgiving meals at Knightsville Methodist Church.

Community Thanksgiving hit its twelfth year at the church in a big way. The initiative began with Elizabeth Henry’s family giving out a couple hundred meals and has grown to 3500 meals this year.

“It started just me and my family and my cousins because I don’t do Thanksgiving leftovers,” Henry, co-founder of Community Thanksgiving, said. “I decided, hey – let’s do something at the church. So, this is what we started and it’s getting bigger and bigger. First, we started with 242 meals and now it’s going to be massive this year.”

Nearly 200 volunteers showed up ready to help. Whether they were new or returning, they said being able to give back is important on Thanksgiving.

“This is an event that my family has helped out for several years now as well as members of our church, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and we love doing this,” Debbie Wells, a volunteer, said. “We think it’s great to give back to the community and this is one of our favorite activities that we do every year. We love partnering with the KMC church and the people we get to work with. It’s definitely fun to see the people in the community come out and serve together.”

While the volunteers helped pack the meals, they didn’t forget to smile and have fun.

“What stands out to me the most is the fun that people are having here,” Wells said. “It’s kind of a happy event for people to come and they’re happy to be here. The thing that stands out also is everyone working together.”

The organizers begin preparing in the summer so they can find enough supplies and adjust what they need to. This year most of the supplies came from Publix, Walmart, Greyco, and Food Lion.

“It’s amazing, it’s truly a community effort,” Michelle Hammond, a volunteer, said. “It’s not just a one day event, we start working on this August and September and all week this week. We’ve got volunteers cooking, cleaning turkeys, injecting turkeys, carving turkeys, preparing food. It’s truly been a week-long community event.”

Despite Thanksgiving being known for families hosting big get-togethers and celebrating, instead Henry’s family now honors her brother on this day as he passed away in December.

“It’s very emotional when it comes to this because me and my brother started it,” Henry said. “So, it hits home – me and my parents get very emotional because it’s very big and it helps us. We enjoy this. So, it’s a lot.”