No matter where you live in Jackson County, there were plenty of opportunities to enjoy a free Thanksgiving meal this year.

It started Sunday when Brownstown Church of Christ gave away Thanksgiving meal packages, which included a gift card for a ham or a turkey, four cans of corn, four cans of green beans, potatoes, gravy and stuffing.

On Monday, The Thirsty Sportsman in Crothersville served a free Thanksgiving dinner featuring turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, deviled eggs, sweet potato casserole, peach cobbler, a roll and brown gravy.

Katie Masters with The Thirsty Sportsman posted on Facebook that nearly 200 dinners were handed out.

“A huge shoutout to everyone that helped during our Thanksgiving dinner at The Thirsty Sportsman,” she said. “My crew from the bar and the ones who pitched in and helped, it was very much appreciated. Thank you all so much.”

On Monday and Tuesday, 250 Thanksgiving dinner baskets were distributed to families throughout the county by Anchor House Family Assistance Center and First Baptist Church in Seymour.

“We are so grateful to have the opportunity each year to be able to come together as a community to provide this for families in need,” Anchor House posted on its Facebook page.

On Wednesday, Boys & Girls Club of Seymour staff members served a meal to nearly 100 members. This was the second year for the Clubs-giving event.

“Last year, I wanted to start Clubs-giving so that our members could have a Thanksgiving meal with their friends,” Program Director Emily James said. “A lot of our members talked about how they have never had certain foods — peas, turkey, corn, pumpkin pie, etc. — so we wanted to make sure they had an opportunity to try those dishes.”

James said the boys and girls deserve to be served with gratitude and shown how thankful the staff members are to be part of their lives.

“By having board members and club staff work together to make the meal happen, we are able to do just that,” she said.

Bailey Lauster, who helps with programming at the club, helped organize the meal this year. She said a staff member made turkey sliders, board members donated sides and other staff donated desserts.

“Board members and the community supplied enough food that this is a fully donated meal. It’s all for the kids,” she said. “This is a way to get the kids’ bellies full before they go on break. We love to make sure that the kids have something to eat before they go because we know that not all of them have that.”

The staff has dinners for the kids on Fridays, but Clubs-giving is a special occasion.

“This is something we like to do just to show appreciation to the kids and learn about Thanksgiving,” Lauster said. “This is also an opportunity, a lot of them have never tried some of this food, like cranberry sauce was a big hit last year. Believe it or not, they loved it. We’ve got it again this year, so we’ll see.”

Seeing the staff come together to make it happen is special, too.

“This is a place that the staff members are like a family,” Lauster said. “We come together. We all decided on what desserts to bring. This was a very good way for us to be a family. I personally feel like our staff are very, very close to each other. We do a great job working together. This is something that I hope we will keep doing year by year.”

On Wednesday, Community Church of Brownstown and New Life Missionary Baptist Church in Brownstown came together for the 15th year of the free Thanksgiving dinner giveaway for county residents.

Missy Collins of Brownstown was studying social work at Ivy Tech Community College in 2008 when she needed to come up with a community service project.

“We had social service work that we had to do, and we started this,” she said.

The first year, 275 meals were served. A year ago, the site served 745 meals.

“When the night’s done, we will have more than that,” she said Wednesday. Collins was right, as the final tally was 818.

She said the program started at Community Church, moved to Michie’s Diner in Brownstown for a few years because of the need for a bigger facility and then Michie’s closed, so it was brought back to the church.

Mike Patton, who died in October 2021 and had owned Michie’s, was instrumental in helping start the Thanksgiving meal giveaway, Collins said.

“He said, ‘How are we going to help you get that?’” she said of her community service project. The idea for the free Thanksgiving dinners throughout the county arose from that conversation.

Collins said she doesn’t think too much about how the program has survived for so long.

“Let’s just say God hasn’t let me quit,” she said.

Collins recruits a lot of family and church members, including Teresa Beavers of Freetown, who helped out by plating meals. The food is donated by many from throughout the community and prepared by volunteers.

Beavers said she has attended Community Church for 22 years and helped off and on with the supper since its inception.

“I love it,” she said.

Collins’ son, Devyn Collins, and daughters, Marissa Joseph of Brownstown and KaCee Collins of Indianapolis, also helped. Devyn, 13, said he helps every year not because he has to, but it’s something he likes doing.

Then on Thanksgiving Day, The Alley provided a traditional Thanksgiving meal at First Baptist Church in Seymour.

Organizer Sara Bowling said food was planned for 200 people. Plus, meals were provided to residents of the Jackson-Jennings Community Corrections Work Release Center in Seymour.

New this year, Outreach Ministries of Seymour loaded its food truck with meals to deliver to rural parts of the county, including Medora, Freetown and Vallonia.

“The Alley was responsible for the meat and the stuffing and the gravy, and then Outreach Ministries did the mashed potatoes and mac and cheese and Cornerstone (Community Church) did green beans and corn,” Bowling said. “Yes, we added more, but it’s less work with entities working together, which is wonderful. Everybody has a hand in today.”

For those at the church, there also was a free table with sweatshirts and socks for people to take.

Side Track’d in Brownstown also spent part of the holiday serving a Thanksgiving dinner. The community outreach was for anyone in need of a meal or who has no family with which to spend the holiday.

Donations received over the amount of money needed to fund the food for the event will be donated to a local charity.