It's been 50 years since Charleston's Frank Veltri first had the idea to open the doors to his hotel and feed the needy on Thanksgiving Day.
This year's Frank Veltri Thanksgiving Dinner begins at noon on Thanksgiving Day at the First Baptist Church, located at 432 Shrewsbury St. Volunteers gathered Wednesday night to prepare the meals and start boxing some of them up to be delivered in the early morning hours.
Judy Snyder got to know Veltri while she was working at his Holley Hotel. She worked as a maid there but quickly moved her way up and was promoted to manning the front desk.
Snyder watched as Veltri time and time again allowed struggling families from the surrounding area stay in one of the empty rooms.
"I would describe him as an angel, because he was so generous," Snyder said. "He helped anybody that needed helped. I have seen him even take adults and children sleeping in a car out back of the hotel and bring them inside for the night."
Snyder, who works for the Covenant House and has organized the annual Thanksgiving dinner for the past two decades, said that after Veltri passed away, his friends and supporters have continued on with his mission.
Veltri started the dinner in 1966, and it quickly grew larger and larger. The first dinner happened right in the lobby of the hotel. After Veltri died in 2001, his friends and supporters took over the cause and continued to organize it in his name.
Veltri left behind an endowment fund, currently managed by the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, to ensure the dinner could keep taking place every year.
Although Snyder wasn't one of the needy families that Veltri supported, he was there anytime she needed him.
"That's just the kind of guy he was," she said.
Snyder thinks Veltri's attitude has rubbed off on her a little bit. She said she helped more than 100 people find new places to stay after Veltri ultimately sold the hotel.
"He had a soft heart," Snyder said. "He was the most wonderful man I have ever met."
Most of the people the dinner serves don't actually make it down to the church on Thanksgiving. If people had pre-registered, volunteers will bring a dinner right to their front door Thursday morning.
As of Tuesday afternoon, volunteers were scheduled to deliver 1,627 dinners to elderly people or people who were unable to leave their homes and come to the dinner in person.
There are no requirements to attend the Thursday dinner. People who are present for the church service just before the dinner will be fed first before people who come afterward.