CLARKESVILLE — The fire in Eric Holbrook’s smoker throws a low orange glow across the lawn. He stands beside it in the hours before dawn, tending the birds that will feed hundreds of Thanksgiving meals at the annual Clarkesville Community Thanksgiving. He has kept this watch for seven years. Midnight to sunrise. Thirty-five turkeys, slow and steady.
Holbrook’s does not do this for applause. He does it because he cannot stand the thought of anyone eating alone on Thanksgiving. He thinks about an elderly widower in a booth at Waffle House, scribbling in a Sudoku book to pass the time. He thinks about a woman in a small apartment, her family gathered in Tempe while she smiles briefly at them through a phone screen. He thinks about families caught in the grind of rising grocery bills, parents trying to explain to their children why their Thanksgiving looks different from what their classmates describe.
The Clarkesville Community Thanksgiving began the way many Southern stories begin, over biscuits. Holbrooks was eating breakfast with three friends when the idea surfaced. They believed the town needed more than a holiday meal. People needed a place to walk in without shame and sit across from someone who cared enough to stay awhile.
“We fed one hundred twenty people the first year,” Holbrooks said. “Last year, we reached three hundred fifty.”
This year, he plans for as many as six hundred.
Volunteers arrive at seven in the morning. Holbrooks arrives long before that. He works the smoker from midnight until six, stacking the birds, checking the fire, listening to the quiet hiss of fat, and counting the hours until the first plates leave the kitchen.
Donations came in early this season. A simple Facebook post brought turkeys, broth, seasoning, flour, oil, sugar, and gallons of tea. Clarkesville Dairy Queen became the drop-off point. Sherry Smith, who handmakes the dressing, works at the local biscuit, burger, and ice-cream emporium and gathers and stores the supplies on behalf of the Thanksgiving effort.
Holbrook’s wife, Mariah, steps in alongside him, and their children work the day with the same sense of purpose. The event belongs to the whole family now. “Habersham has been good to me,” he said. “We want to serve our community.” The first meal came together at Stoney’s Restaurant on Third Street. It later moved to Clarkesville First Presbyterian Church on Jefferson Street, where the doors open wide each Thanksgiving.
First Presbyterian Church, like Holbrooks, believes hospitality carries weight when it comes without condition. They know some who walk through the door are hungry. They know some are lonely. Others come because they want the sound of a room filled with neighbors, the comfort of hands passing plates and voices rising together at a shared table. So the church donates its commercial kitchen and its space, trusting the meal will bring people together.
Early volunteers like Damen Johnson, Sherry Smith, Ruby Allison, and Joe Johnson have stayed by Holbrook’s side through the years. They help shape the day into something larger than a meal. The plates matter. The people matter more.
The Clarkesville Community Thanksgiving will run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 27. Everyone is welcome. No one pays. No one is asked to explain where they have been or what they face. Holbrooks wants every person to feel, if only for a moment, that someone waited for them. This is the heart of the holiday in a small Northeast Georgia town. A man stands over a smoker in the cold while the street lies quiet. He tends his fire hour by hour, preparing for a room of strangers who may not feel like strangers once they sit at the table.
Other Thanksgiving events across Northeast Georgia
Athens First United Methodist Church
Free community Thanksgiving meal
Monday, Nov. 24, 5-6:30 p.m.
327 N. Lumpkin Street
El Paso Tacos & Tequila — Athens
Free Thanksgiving plate per person
Tuesday, Nov. 25, 6-10 p.m.
255 West Washington Street, downtown Athens
Nicholson Baptist Church — Banks County
Annual Community Giving event with Thanksgiving meals, food boxes, and access to the NBC Clothes Closet. All free and open to the community.
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 3-6 p.m.
71 Church Street
The Sparrow’s Nest — Athens
Wednesday, Nov. 26, begins at noon, served while supplies last
745 Prince Avenue
8th Annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner – Cornelia
Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 27, 11:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Cornelia Community House
601 Wyly Street
Sanders Grove Baptist Church – Hartwell
Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 27, 12:30-3:30 p.m.
145 Sanders Street
(Hart County pickup location only)
