LEWISTON — Diane Anderson stopped to ask two men standing outside Hope Haven Gospel Mission on Wednesday if they were cold and could use blankets. They pointed her to someone inside, where she unexpectedly found herself talking about the next day’s Thanksgiving meal and even more unexpectedly asking if they could use more volunteers.

“I had plans, but the Lord had plans for me,” said Anderson of Lisbon Falls, who spent Thanksgiving serving mashed potatoes and stuffing at Lewiston’s largest shelter. “I just wanted to do something because I feel so blessed and I just wanted to do something for somebody else.”

Danielle Owens of Auburn and her three children, Kingsley, 10, Serephina, 6, and Corbyn, 13, listen as Pastor John Robbins says “thank you” to the volunteers who came to Hope Haven Gospel Mission to deliver Thanksgiving meals on Thursday. Robbins said the only thing that has changed between this Thanksgiving and last is the number of meals-to-go being delivered is down this year. “We will be delivering a warm Thanksgiving meal,” he said.  “And it will not be hot dogs and cold beans.” Daryn Slover/Sun Journal Buy this Photo

Meals have been down since the start of the pandemic, according to Pastor John Robbins, but volunteers still turned out Thursday, delivering 120 to-go packs to people who may not have otherwise had Thanksgiving, as well as serving people downstairs.

For the second year in a row, Danielle Owens of Auburn delivered meals with her three children, Kingsley, Corbyn and Serephina, ages 13 to 6.

“It’s really important to me that my kids give back and see people less fortunate as the same as us or most deserving,” Owens said.

They made eight deliveries around Lewiston with the kids carrying food to people’s doors.

Tobi Petersen of Auburn said she was inspired to volunteer this year by Owens, her friend. She delivered 16 meals around Lewiston-Auburn.

“I made some adjustments (to her own Thanksgiving dinner), but it was very important that I could be there for this,” Petersen said. “Giving food to people who may be struggling … is a genuinely wonderfully human thing to do, and everyone should always have a warm plate in their belly.”

Marc Nadeau of Lewiston was also at Hope Haven for the first time, having asked his friend, a longtime volunteer, “if I could tag along and not get in the way and be able to be a little bit of service.”

Marc Nadeau, left, Amanda Christman of Lewiston and Diane Anderson of Lisbon Falls serve Thanksgiving meals at Hope Haven Gospel Mission in Lewiston on Thursday. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal Buy this Photo

He added rolls to takeout containers and helped coordinate deliveries, passing up an invitation to dinner from his sister and her family.

“I just feel so blessed by God with all that He does and this could be a very small way of saying thank you to God,” Nadeau said. “As we were leaving, everybody was saying, ‘Good-bye, see you at Christmastime,’ so I’m hoping that that’s a possibility.”

He’d definitely like to come back.

Anderson made Christmas meal plans before she left, too.

The blankets in her car that originally prompted her to stop on Wednesday were made by her cousin, Jackie Jewell.

“I was telling her last year, there were people wandering around freezing to death, and she sews, so she made some blankets for me to have them in the car so I could give them to the homeless,” Anderson said.

She ended up handing them to Hope Haven’s Joselyn Griggs, who cooked 20 turkeys for Thursday’s Thanksgiving meal.

“She was thrilled to have them,” Anderson said. “She said some people don’t want to come in and stay the night but they come in and the look for blankets and stuff. … I have a whole trunkful more to give her on Monday.”

Photographer Daryn Slover contributed to this report.

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