Riverside church hand-delivers Thanksgiving meals for needy

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KABC) -- Instead of spending the day with family, volunteers from a Riverside church spent a good part of Thanksgiving delivering meals to thousands of people.

Central Community Christian Fellowship cranks out the holiday meals by the thousands for those in need.

"Our church is really small and it's just so amazing that we can feed like 4,000 people, 5,000 people, so every year I just come out and it takes like 400 of us to do it," volunteer Teresa Burns said.

Some volunteers help cook, some help package and others help to deliver the food.

While the food is important, the deliveries are also about emotional support.

Many people on the receiving end of the deliveries are seniors, while others may be lonely.

That's why each meal comes with a hand written note wishing recipients a happy Thanksgiving.

"In the beginning it was just the working poor and those types of struggles. But it's long since gone over to situations where we have people that this is their first year after a divorce or the first year with a death in the family," Pastor Eric Denton explained.

For those giving and receiving the meals, they said they serve as a reminder to how everyone has something to be thankful for.