Members of six churches in Mathews gathered at Kingston Parish House on Main Street last Wednesday to prepare Thanksgiving dinners for delivery to Meals on Wheels recipients.

Organized by Parish member Vicki Carter, the gathering marked the 25th year of the community meal tradition at Kingston. Last year would have been the gathering’s silver anniversary, but COVID forced a change of plans, and the volunteers only delivered meals to homebound recipients, said Carter.

“Meals on Wheels did it all then,” she said, “and we organized the drivers.”

With the school system taking off the day before Thanksgiving this year, Carter said the churches decided they should prepare two meals for each Meals on Wheels recipient instead of just one.

“We didn’t want them to go so many days without a meal,” she said.

Each church was given certain menu items to provide for each meal, and Food Lion was asked to cook fried chicken. The kitchen employees went to work at 6 a.m. to prepare 280 pi...