Open Door Community Church and Crossroads Church are combining efforts to offer the community a free soup and dessert dinner on the night before Thanksgiving.

Tanya Bouma, an event organizer and member of Crossroads Church, said the churches just want to help.

"We wanted to do something for the community that would benefit anybody and everybody," Bouma said.

The efforts to bring this hope to reality began only a few weeks ago but are in full swing.

Organizers have the menu and the location picked out. The dinner will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., or until they run out of soup, Wednesday, Nov. 25, at the Pelican Lake Community Center, one mile south of the Breezy Point Resort gates just off County Road 4.

The women of the churches will make the soup and desserts.

Three different kinds of soups will be on the menu: chili, turkey noodle and potato. Bouma said they hope to prepare around 18 to 20 gallons of soup and serve between 100 to 150 people.

The desserts will range anywhere from pies and bars to cake and cookies.

At the dinner, the churches will not ask for a freewill donation.

"This is not a fundraiser. We just want people to come and eat," Bouma said.

Northern Food King is going to be helping out with the dinner in some capacity.

Also, if this meal goes well, the churches are looking to make this an annual event and to add a similar event for Christmas.

"Everybody is really excited about the dinner. It is really helping us do two things. We are serving the community, and it is building church relations," Bouma said.