Thanksgiving has passed. You know, that one holiday whose public relation officials spend most of November asleep at the wheel while the cheerleaders of Christmas take full advantage.

I woke up the morning after the holiday and read a news piece about select restaurants opting to open for the holiday as many folks spend the holiday enjoying the food without having to suck up several hours or several days preparing a meal for family. For some people, the tradition has gone back for decades. Data from OpenTable shows that restaurant reservations were up 13% this year.

It was an interesting take for me. Thanksgiving, for me, usually involves visiting family to talk turkey over turkey. It’s one of the few times when everyone can come together at the same time to hang out and talk. My mother used to host everyone, but my sister has taken on that role in recent years.

I could never imagine my family opting to just travel to a restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner. For one thing, the operation on preparing food in my sister’s home is like a well-oiled machine—aside from the occasional rift about when the pies should go in the oven. To push us to a restaurant on Thanksgiving Day would require the kitchen to catch on fire or the power to go out, the latter option showing potential the day before in Wisconsin.

I certainly don’t begrudge folks who want to go to a restaurant on Thanksgiving, but I’m not able to fathom why, despite fluctuating grocery prices, people are willing to dole out $30 or more to get a meal when it’s less expensive to make it yourself. Still, if you’re willing to put out, more power to you.

This year, Todd and I tried something extra. We still went to my sister’s for Thanksgiving dinner, but we also volunteered with our church to serve a dinner to the community that morning. It required us to forgo watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, a tradition we’d both engaged in for years, but it was something we wanted to do.

Very rarely do you see communities doing meals on holidays themselves. They’ll do it a day or two before and beam with pride, but for some, the point isn’t always to feed those who are hungry. There are many who don’t have family or friends available to celebrate with them on Thanksgiving Day, so some who come to these meals are seeking fellowship, friendship and more.

Todd and I both arrived expecting we’d be put to work right away. I figured I’d be spending my time scooping something onto people’s plates, but it didn’t quite turn out that way. We had a glut of volunteers, so there were a lot of people to serve up turkey, mashed potatoes, pie and an assortment of other Thanksgiving staples. With that, we wound up stationed at the front door as greeters.

I wasn’t sure if there was going to be a massive wave of people when we opened the doors, crushing us under their boots. People came in slowly but surely, although there were a couple of moments when larger groups waltzed through the doors with Todd on one side and me on the other to get them out of the wind and cold.

The good thing about this event was those who were dining didn’t have to pay anything. Our church and the other churches were not expecting to get paid, and we weren’t expecting anything from attendees except to enjoy the food that had been prepared. No requirement of prayers, listening to sermons or anything like that. It was giving in its purest form, where the only reward was knowing we helped people.

Matthew 25:35-40 says: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”

Giving to the community means more when you don’t have a server deliver a check to the table.