ORANGE PARK – What is the spirit of Thanksgiving? Most people think of Thanksgiving as a time to gather with family and express one’s thanks through food and togetherness. It is often synonymous with turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie, watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade featuring marching bands and elaborate floats and, of course, football.

As the name suggests, Thanksgiving is a day of giving thanks. It’s a time to celebrate what we are most grateful for, sometimes written down on paper and then shared around the dinner table. It is a time to reflect on our blessings, show appreciation for one another, and give back to the community.

That’s what inspired Mercy Support Services, Saved 2 Serve Ministries and Seeds of Love to partner to provide families with a Thanksgiving meal bag during their Second Annual Fall Blessings event on Nov. 19 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The bags contain items needed for a family of four to prepare Thanksgiving dinner at home.

“The majority of Thanksgiving meal bags are provided by Elevated Life Church,” said Saved to Serve founder Willian Darnell. “We have also gotten organizations to help prepare the bags. They know that we are going to get them to the people that need them. They offered them to us. But we also got a lot of donations.”

Saved to Serve Ministries, a faith-based organization in Orange Park, has been distributing meals for nearly nine years since the start of the ministry.

“We started as a ministry, just passing bagged lunches out the window of my truck. And over the course of the years, it’s developed into 350 lunches a month. We help anyone who needs it,” Darnell said.

The Thanksgiving meal bags include a traditional meal including “family-sized stuffing, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, cornbread mix, pumpkin pie and an additional gift card for the protein, depending on if the family wants turkey or ham,” Darnell said.

Not only does this provide food to families in need, but it also allows families to partake in important Thanksgiving rituals to truly come together with thankful hearts, regardless of their present circumstances. It allows families a little peace of mind so they can focus on what really matters – each other.

“One of the things we do is just encourage people to spend time each making lists of the things they are grateful for. Because if you can start the day with gratitude, it does change your attitude for the rest of the day.

If you wake up stressed about money and stuff like that, you tend not to look at the great things you have in your life,” Darnell said.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, there will also be a gratitude board inviting families to reflect on their blessings. It will also serve as a prayer request to help meet the needs of the families. “Being to partner with other organizations and helping serve community needs, that’s what it’s all about,” said Darnell.

In addition to distributing Thanksgiving meal bags, there will be nonprofit groups available to connect individuals and families to resources in the community.

“So basically we come together to put on these events to serve our community. Especially with people facing financial hardships right now,” Seeds of Love’s Melissa Rodriguez. “We have different organizations and different nonprofits that will come and set up tables to give out information about the different resources they offer.

“It’s kind of like a one-stop shop event where people can learn about the different resources that are available to them in Clay County.”

The event will also have fun activities for all ages.

“We wanted to try to make it fun and the typical characteristics of a fall festival for children, but be able to reach the families in a tangible way so they can have the Thanksgiving experience,” Darnell said.

Rodriguez agreed, saying, “We’re going to have games and prizes and giveaways. There will be free haircuts. Lunch will be provided by Bubba’s Smokehouse.

We’re going to have a photobooth and hopefully some face painting, and live music. It’s a family fun event that people can come to not only enjoy food and other items but just to have a good time.”