ELLENVILLE – My husband and I host Thanksgiving every year. It is a tiring and stressful process. The house starts clean, and ends in disaster with every pot, pan and utensil dirty and piled on the counter. There is chaos, people stumbling into each other in the kitchen and kids sprawled out in the living room. There are no less than eleven different opinions on when the turkey should — or will — be done. No two ways of making the gravy are the same.

By dinner, glasses clink together. There's laughter and stories remembering Thanksgivings' past, of family members passed, of the good fortune we have encountered throughout the year.

There's a lot we're all thankful for: good health, financial stability, closeness of family and friends. In that moment, we realize our good fortunes — whatever they may be to us individually — and take solace that we've each seen the dark and come through to the other side unscathed.

We sit together, two families now blended, sharing our gratitude.

I've always been most thankful for my family; they are the only people to support me at my worst and celebrate along with me at my best. I've been thankful for my home, for my friends, for my job.

But not nearly enough have I been grateful for the meals I eat.

There are a staggering number of residents in our readership area not getting enough to eat, and going to bed hungry on a regular basis. And that number, Family of Ellenville assistant program director Dominic Pidone said, is only increasing.

"If people are hungry, if they are sick from malnourishment, they will never get 'It,' whatever 'it' is. Food... since we can do it, we do it," Pidone said.

Family of Ellenville, an off-shoot of the 45 year old community-based advocacy agency Family of Woodstock, is — amongst many other like-minded agencies in the village and community as a whole — on the front line battling the growing problem of hunger in America. Family does their part though an intricate system, offering Monday through Friday food pantry services as well as holiday assistance.

"Family of Ellenville has the busiest food pantry, surpassing the other villages (Saugerties, New Paltz) and the city of Kingston," Pidone said, noting that in just September, 231 households signed on, equating to about 604 people.

With Thanksgiving, a holiday steeped in traditions of goodwill and optimism, just around the corner, Family of Ellenville volunteers are doing their part to make the holiday a bit easier on those having a hard time finding enough food for the day or the week, let alone a feast.

This year, Family is giving away 120 Thanksgiving baskets, filled to the brim with either turkeys or chickens and all the traditional trimmings.

In September, Pidone said, Family received fifty turkeys from Walmart... and had to give a lot of them away to community churches and soup kitchens due to a lack of refrigeration at Family. But, he continued, they all went towards the cause.

While they kept a few, Murray's Chicken, a Pennsylvania-based poultry farm with a processing center in South Fallsburg, donated many frozen chickens to Family, helping greatly in filling the needs of promised Thanksgiving baskets. Volunteers froze fingertips processing each one, Pidone said, but were grateful.

Each of the baskets, he added, will be picked up the Saturday before Thanksgiving, November 21.

The agency picks up salvaged foods — meaning those nearing, but not yet expired, or in dented or crushed containers — from Walmart in Ellenville three times a week. In the last year they have picked up 81,000 pounds of food, equal to 40 tons.

"ShopRite and Walmart have been very generous," Pidone said, noting that the agency also receives grants from the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern NY.

Parishioners of the Mountain View United Methodist Church are also lending a hand this year, making Thanksgiving a bit brighter for those less fortunate or lonely. At 2 p.m. on Saturday, November 21 the church is hosting a free Thanksgiving dinner at the Memorial Hall on Route 302/Church Street in Pine Bush, Christine Griffin said. The annual meal, now in its seventh year, gives community members a hot, home-cooked dinner as well as company, which Griffin said many elderly in the community lack. She expects 60 to 75 residents to take part in the dinner.

Also in Ellenville, Pastor Laurence Powell of the Ellenville United Methodist Church said he's seen a dramatic increase in the number of people requesting help during Thanksgiving. The church, he said, started putting together their Thanksgiving basket list in October and are in the process of finalizing it now... but the numbers, he added, have gone up, doubling since last year. There will be 60 baskets for community members this year, filled with foods donated by church parishioners.

Thanksgiving transcends financial, religious and cultural boundaries... It is the quintessential 'American' holiday. And like 400 years ago, when members of the Wampanoag Native American tribe and European settlers came together for the betterment of all involved, there are individuals amongst us doing the same to this day.

And for that, I'm grateful.