Thanksgiving is coming and you're needed.

For 20 years, a dedicated band of volunteers has served up a complete Thanksgiving dinner, from turkey and mashed potatoes to pumpkin pie, for the city's homeless, hungry, homebound and elderly poor. In all, more than 4,000 meals are prepared each year.

Greensboro Urban Ministry provides the kitchen facilities and dining room, but funds to support the dinner come directly from the community - and everybody little bit helps.

This year, it will cost about $12,000 to provide the Thanksgiving dinner. Gifts can be made by check to The Thanksgiving Fund C/O Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, PO Box 20444, Greensboro, NC 27420; in person at Foundation Place at 330 S. Greene St. downtown; or online at www.cfgg.org, select Foundation Initiatives, then Thanksgiving Fund.

For the volunteers, the meal takes place over two days - the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, followed by an early morning crew on Thanksgiving Day, which cooks, serves, transports meals and cleans up. The meals are served to people who come to the Greensboro Urban Ministry facility and are delivered to the homebound, those living with HIV/AIDS, the elderly, and Mobile Meals clients.

The dinner was originally organized in 1987 by Mary Lacklen, owner of Bert's Seafood Grille and was initially funded by the Greensboro Restaurant Association (GRA). Over the years, membership in the GRA diminished and alternative funding had to be found.

Five years ago, Wendy Lavine, then with the Triad Health Project, was instrumental in establishing the Thanksgiving Fund at the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, which is set aside solely for this dinner.

Lacklen and Ken Conrad, owner of Libby Hill Seafood, who has also been involved with the dinner for many years, will lead the effort again this year.