One of our local “churches with a mission” once again provided a valuable service on Thanksgiving Day.

The American Rescue Workers prepared a Thanksgiving meal for comunity members without the means of having their own meal or without anywhere else to go.

We appreciate that the church’s volunteers perform this service every year — and we respect the hard work that such an undertaking encompasses.

As we have noted in several editorials over the past few weeks, we hope that community members can reflect on how they can help organizations fulfill the spirit of the season.

The American Rescue Workers is one such organization.

Jen Gregory, Hannah Sciacca, Luke Senior and Nancy Heilman shared with the Sun-Gazette the process for taking the staples of a family holiday meal and scaling them up to meet the needs of the community’s less fortunate for an article in last Tuesday’s edition.

Numerous turkeys are cooked — with the biggest taking about three hours to cook on its own, the volunteers noted.

Side dishes need prepared. The logistics of pre-ordering, packaging and delivering meals need ironed out.

It is heartwarming to reflect on the sacrifice of time and effort to carry out this endeavor. And we believe everyone in our communities should appreciate the hard work and time the church and its volunteers dedicate to meeting this need. We hope their example can inspire more of our neighbors and friends to find ways during the Christmas and holiday season to reach out and help their communities in some ways — to share the rectitude of caring for each other with kindness and compassion.