Thanksgiving for Thousands celebrates 25 years

Thanksgiving for Thousands had a humble beginning. It started 25 years ago when a Dagsboro church ran out of room for its annual Thanksgiving dinner. With the help of Mountaire Farms, 300 boxes were packed with food and distributed.

This year, 10,000 boxes were packed Nov. 25 by hundreds of volunteers at the Mountaire Selbyville warehouse, and another 10,000 were packed at plants in North Carolina. Boxes were picked up the following day by community groups for distribution throughout the region. Each box contained a Mountaire chicken, corn, string beans, yams, cranberry sauce, stuffing mix and a brownie mix.

The Selbyville event has grown so large that four assembly lines are now needed. For the first time, two lines were moved outside the warehouse into a tent.