MURRELLS INLET, S.C. (WBTW) — More than 1,200 Thanksgiving meals were handed out Thursday in Murrells Inlet.
Low Country Community Church hosts a free lunch for anyone every year. More than 200 volunteers from seven local churches helped put this year’s meal together.
Preparation and budgeting started in August. Cooking began on Monday.
Low Country Community Church handed out nearly 1,200 meals last year and estimates the number of meals handed out this year was roughly 1,300.
The meal has all of the Thanksgiving staples, meaning more than 1,100 pounds of turkey, 400 pounds of ham and 20 gallons of gravy.
Organizers said costs grew by more than 20% this year due to inflation, but some local groups stepped up and pitched in.
“We have all kinds of people come in from people who are visiting from out of town — there’s some people here from Canada right now — we have people here from north Georgia that drove in that are on vacation that came and heard about this, and we have singles,” Pastor Steve Fairchild said. “We have people who actually brought their turkey that came. So we just don’t want you to be alone and we want to use the turkey meal as a tool to get you to come in and experience community.”
The meals were served between noon and 3 p.m. People also had the option to take meals to go.