Volunteers at the Ironton City Mission spent the better part of Wednesday getting ready for the Thanksgiving dinner it prepares for people in the community.

One hundred loaves of bread for dressing, 150 pounds of cabbage for slaw, 50 gallons of green beans, 39 20-plus pound turkeys and 75 pumpkin pies are all needed to serve the just over 800 meals the mission plans to give out on Thanksgiving.

Jeff Cremeans, pastor of the City Mission Church, said about 75 to 100 meals will be served at the mission, while the rest will be picked up or delivered to shut-ins.

“I know we’re helping people that wouldn’t otherwise even have a Thanksgiving dinner,” Mary Cremeans, volunteer and Jeff Cremeans’ mother, said. “It’s a blessing to know that you’re helping people.”

Volunteers from the church and the community help out preparing for the dinner on Wednesday and serve and deliver meals on Thanksgiving Day.

One volunteer who helps with the meal, Deb Hagerty, said she has volunteered for the Thanksgiving dinner for 11 years.

“I bought a house on the corner over here 12 years ago,” she said. “The second year I wandered over here to see what was going on. I introduced myself and they put me right to work. I’ve come back every year and I help with Christmas too.”

Hagerty belongs to Christ Episcopal Church, but said she enjoys the people and volunteering at the mission, as it is like an outreach for her church.

“This is my church away from my church,” she said. “I love these people and the people that come in for food are so gracious.”

All of the food, besides the turkeys, is prepared and cooked at the mission. Turkeys are baked by volunteers and brought back to the mission by 8 a.m. on Thanksgiving and volunteers arrive around 6:30 a.m.

Jeff Cremeans said the City Mission Church was started in 1944 and the Thanksgiving dinner tradition quickly followed in the late 1940s or early 1950s.