Scenes from last year’s annual Community Christmas Dinner held at the First Presbyterian Church in Parkersburg. This year’s meal will be Thursday at the church, located at 1341 Juliana St., from 12-1:30 p.m. The meal is open to anyone wanting a Christmas meal as well as fellowship with others. (Fie Photo)

PARKERSBURG — The First Presbyterian Church in Parkersburg is continuing its annual Community Christmas Dinner on Thursday from 12-1:30 p.m.

The annual dinner will be held in the Stevenson Fellowship Hall at the church, located at 1341 Juliana St., said the Rev. Annie McMillan. The meal will be a traditional turkey dinner with many of the traditional fixings and a dessert.

“It is a free community meal,” McMillan said. “We have been doing it for around 36 years and we are excited every year to be able to offer this to the community.

“People will be able to come and enjoy a meal and dessert together with others.”

Many of the church’s dozen or so volunteers will be at the church as early as 6 a.m. Christmas morning to begin preparing the food for the meal. They have 10 people signed up already and they always get others from the church and from around the community to come in and help with food preparation and delivering meals.

As of Tuesday, the church has 224 orders for meals to be delivered and 36 orders from people who will pick up the meals themselves for carry out, church officials said.

“A lot of people have called asking for delivery,” McMillan said. “We deliver to those who are unable to make it or who are shut in or unable to make it out to come to the meal here.”

McMillan did not recall the number of people who attended the dinner last year, but said it “was well attended.”

McMillian said after a number of years that saw a high delivery/pick up rate due to the COVID pandemic and other concerns, the number of people coming to the meal itself has been growing.

The event is also a chance for the church and others to provide items, such as gloves, scarves and more to help people deal with the seasonal cold weather. An arts guild meets at the church and makes such items and donate them to be given out during the dinner, she said.

“We are happy to be able to provide things to the community as they need it,” McMillan said.

The church always has a mix of people who come in for the meal with people coming in from the Julia Ann Square Historic District who have nowhere else to go and some from other parts of the city as well as those who don’t have a place to live.

The dinner remains an important part of the holiday for many people as a reminder for the real meaning of the season and remembering others during this time of year.

“Tradition is a part of it,” McMillan said. “There are so many places that aren’t open on Christmas Day.

“It is such an important time for people to be able to eat together and have community. It is also important for people to be able to volunteer their time to those who need it. We love that we are able to provide this for the community.”

The Stevenson Fellowship Hall is around the back of the church. McMillan said they are working on having something out on the church grounds to direct people to where they need to go.

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com