Cooks and volunteers began preparations this week in anticipation of Thanksgiving feasts all across the Brewton and East Brewton community.

Bentley Martin and Carin Diercks were in the kitchen at the First United Methodist Church of Brewton Wednesday preparing pans of dressing for the oven.

“We will be back here at about 4 a.m. Thursday to make sure the turkeys go into the oven on time,” Martin said. “We are going to be busy all day preparing the meal.”

Diercks said the church group is preparing enough food to feed more than 200 people.

“We are planning to have everything to feed between 200 and 250 people on Thanksgiving,” Diercks said. “We have everything planned and ready to go. We want this to be more of an outreach ministry than just providing a meal.”

Martin said the outreach project will involve about 50 people to prepare and serve the meal.

“We have around 50 people who will be helping with the meal,” Martin said. “Most of them are church members, but we have had some people who found out about this and called to offer help. It’s been a blessing for us. We plan on creating a home-style atmosphere and have people come in and sit down to be served. It’s our plan to actually serve the meal and invite people to stay so we can get a chance to visit with them during this special time.”

Meals will be served from noon to 2 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church fellowship hall on Belleville Avenue.

Other church groups around the area are also hard at work preparing food to feed those who may be displaced this holiday or have no other means of having a meal on their own.

Members of the Christ Kingdome Ministries group will be serving the noon holiday meal at their Douglas Avenue fellowship hall. Meals may be eaten at the church or taken home. Meals will be served by the group beginning at 11 a.m. and will continue until 2 p.m.

Divine Temple in East Brewton will be providing an opportunity to enjoy a traditional holiday meal to be served at the East Brewton Civic Center on Forrest Avenue. The meals may be eaten at the Center or taken home for dining. The group will also be serving at a second location in Century for the day. Meals will be served beginning at 11 a.m. and will continue until 2 p.m. or later. The group also encourages emergency workers, city workers or others who are required to work on Thanksgiving Day to come to the East Brewton location to enjoy the meal.

There is no charge for any of the meals and they are all open to the public.