Thanksgiving is a time for showing kindness to those who are lonely, or less fortunate than some of us.

Here in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area, there are plenty of organizations offering food and companionship to people who could use a break on Thursday.

“While many of us have an awful lot to be thankful for, and are able to supply a holiday meal for our families and our friends, there are a lot of people in the community who just don’t have that option,” said John Dorward, executive director of the Inter-Faith Council.

The IFC has a lot planned for Thanksgiving Day.

“We will have a Thanksgiving meal served, with turkey and all the trimmings at the Community Kitchen,” said Dorward. “The United Church here in Chapel Hill has done that for a number of years, and they’ll be coming back over to the community shelter and doing that again this year.”

The Community Kitchen is located at 100 West Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill. In addition, 350 families will receive a turkey and all the fixin’s needed for a holiday meal from the food pantry on Main Street in Carrboro.

Homeless veterans will benefit from a holiday food drive co-sponsored by the American Legion Post on Legion Raod in Chapel Hill and UNC’s Carolina Veterans Organization.

American Legion Post Commander Lee Heavlin credits the CVO for doing the hard work.

What they’ve done is reached out to students and local people, and small businesses, and large businesses, to provide non-perishable foods that they, in turn, are going to distribute to the TABLE in Carrboro, and to the Carolina Food Bank for Eastern and Central North Carolina.”

The TABLE is a non-profit group that provides food to children in need.

Loneliness can be a hardship around this time of year, too.

For the second year in a row, The Carolina Club is doing something this Thanksgiving for UNC students that can’t make it home that day.

The restaurant is ready to provide hundreds of meals for out-of-state and international students, in partnership with the UNC Office of Student Affairs, the Student Leadership Advisory Committee, and the Educational Foundation.

For more information on that event, call 919-962-9578.