ORLANDO, Fla. -- One local organization is serving more than 1,000 hot meals to the homeless Wednesday. The great Thanksgiving banquet started around 11:30am in downtown Orlando. The Orlando Rescue Mission is expected to feed a record number of 1,200 people Wednesday.
People were lined up long before they started serving the meals. At 10:00am, the line was already wrapped around the building.
The Thanksgiving lunch is held every year, but people with the rescue mission said the need is so much greater this year than in previous years.
For many people, this will be the only Thanksgiving meal they get and for that reason, the rescue mission gathered as many volunteers as possible to help meet the demands.
More than 120 volunteers were there to help prepare food and serve plates to an estimated 1,200 people.
Mission director Allen Harden told WFTV, that this year the organization is serving a large number of families who have fallen victim to the recession and are struggling to make ends meet. He said the number of people they're expecting is just a percentage of the homeless population in Orlando, many of whom you won't find on the street, rather in motels or staying with family and friends until they've exhausted their resources.
"It's not the typical person that you would think would be homeless; it's very different and it's children and women. They're displaced, things have happened and they have nowhere to go," Harden said.
"It's a blessing, God is good. You can never say you have nothing to eat. You can't go hungry. You can go right over here and eat," said Abilene Tilton, who is homeless.
WFTV spoke with a lot of volunteers out who have made it an annual tradition to help out. They said they have a lot to be thankful for and this is their way of giving back.
