Two local churches, Plant City Baptist in Lanett and Fairview Baptist in Valley, did some great work Thursday morning in providing Thanksgiving dinner to hundreds of Valley area residents. Plant City Baptist helped an estimated 150 people and Fairview sent out approximately 180 plates.

People had the option of coming to the church to pick up their meal or have it delivered to them. Both churches delivered to addresses in Valley, Lanett and West Point.

At Plant City Baptist, Barbara Roberts organized the cooking and Courtney Sanders the deliveries.

“We’ve been doing this for about 10 years now,” said Roberts. “This year we had nine turkeys, nine pans of dressing, 40 pounds of potato salad, 10 gallons of green beans, seven pans of sweet potato soufflé and nine pound cakes.”

Preparations for Thanksgiving dinner began in late October and paid off in a smooth delivery on Thanksgiving morning.

“We didn’t have to turn anyone away this year, and that’s good,” Sanders said. “We had six delivery routes with two people on each route. We mapped it out in advance. Everyone knew where they were going ahead of time.”

At Fairview, around a dozen cooks spent most of Wednesday preparing food for the big day on Thursday. They did it in the church’s 7,000-square-foot family life center that opened in September 2017. Close to two dozen volunteers from the church worked Thursday morning to prepare plates for delivery. Like Plant City Baptist, Fairview has six routes being worked by 12 people. There’s information sharing between the two churches on what works best. All the planning and hard work ensured that more than 300 local people had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner ready for them by noon on Thanksgiving Day.

“Fairview has been doing this for a number of years now,” said Rev. Tim Bass. “We look forward to doing it each year, and get great participation. It takes some fundraising and a lot of planning. It all comes together on Thanksgiving morning. We want to thank the community for its support and participation.”