No one can remember quite how long The Church of the Holy Trinity in Vicksburg has been hosting its turkey dinner each November.

Lee Thames who has been a member of the church for 81 years said, “I remember it way back. I would say at least pre-Second World War.”

It has changed some over the years. The bazaar that once was part is long gone. Take out meals are now served and men are allowed to help out.

The crux of the event has stayed the same through the years even as the participants have changed.

“We see people both helping and eating that we might not see any other time of year. That makes it wonderful as well. It is kind of like the family gathering at Thanksgiving,” the Rev. Beth Palmer, who participated in her sixth turkey dinner this year, said. “It is one of the things that defines us. It has just become since we’ve done it for so long part of who we are.”

Palmer admitted that every year there are times when they see it as more of a drag than a blessing because of the amount of work involved, but “then we pull together and this afternoon we will all kick back and say that was wonderful.”

This year’s turkey dinner was served Nov. 16, and 900 meals were served.

“We have expanded the numbers,” Palmer said. “Last year we sold 900 tickets and we increased it by 100 from some of the years before that we did 800 and this year we kept it with 900.”

A few tweaks here and there aside, the menu has stayed mostly the same over the years. The turkey is still carved from the bone, the cornbread dressing is still made from scratch and the cranberry salad recipe has been passed down through the years.

“Wednesday we bake the cornbread and that was always the amazing part to me,” Palmer said. “We bake from scratch cornbread to serve 900 people dressing. On Wednesday, we turn into the cornbread bakery, because the cornbread has to be mixed, baked, cooled and crumbled.”

This year that required 210 pounds of cornmeal to make 56 pans of cornbread that was crumpled by a team who fondly refers to themselves as “the crumblers” who each have a different method for getting the job done.

While the cornbread is being cooked and crumbled Wednesday night, the men of the church, now that they have been invited to help, are in charge of carving the more than 1,000 pounds of turkey that will be served.

“Wednesday night is always the carving,” Palmer said. “That had typically been a guys thing, which used to worry me quite a bit, but so far so good.”

Over the years, the church has gotten the turkey dinner down to a science and has it detailed over a two-month period what tasks have to be completed when.

“We have these notebooks that say a month ahead of time you have to do this and three weeks ahead of time you have to do this and two weeks ahead of time,” Palmer said. “The week of, we have it down to the days. Monday we make the cranberry salad because it is gelled and we can put it in the fridge. Tuesday, we do the decorating.”

For many years, the event was organized and run by the women of the church, but over the years men have been invited to help.

“This is technically a church women project, but years ago men got involved and you will see it is at least half and half if not more men,” Palmer said. “It has kind of morphed into a church project.”

The work is divided into teams with different people in charge of the cranberries salad, the dressing and more.

“A lot,” Logan Peay, who chairs the turkey dinner, said of how much work is involved. “We start probably the first of October and start getting inventory of what we have and figuring out what we need to order. It kind of works itself as long as you have people coming back each year to do that particular job like my sister does the dressing.”

The money raised from the event goes towards the church to help with projects. Most recently, Palmer said, funds were used to help remodel the church’s kitchen.

As much as it is a tradition at the much, it is equally a tradition throughout Vicksburg as people return year after year to eat.

“Since I could get out here,” Anne Cashman Cole said of how long she has attended. “I love it. It is wonderful and I come every year. The food is good and it supports the church.”

And that is why despite the months of hard work it takes to pull off, the turkey dinner isn’t going anywhere.

“It means a great deal to our membership because it gives us an opportunity to serve our Lord in tangible ways and together in fun ways,” Thames said. “We like to think it means something to the community.”