A Chuckatuck church has ensured three large families won’t go without a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner Thursday.

On Saturday, the families drove away from Little Bethel Baptist Church on Everets Road with boxes full of food.

It wasn’t such an easy walk to the parking lot: The boxes were loaded with turkey, sweet potato pie, rolls, cranberry sauce, cabbage, collards, gravy, ham and stuffing — not to mention crushed pineapple and iced tea.

The families each have between six and 10 members, said Delores Edwards, president of New Beginning Missionary, the senior ministry that collaborated on the project with Gifted Juniors Missionary — for church youth.

“We gave them a complete Thanksgiving dinner,” Edwards said.

Barbara Cooper, grandmother to four young children, is from one of the recipient families.

“It will be a blessing to have,” Cooper said. “Things were so expensive, with the economy and everything. Every little bit helps.”

Jacqueline Cooper, mother to the children, said, “Not too many are hospitable today.” “It’s very nice,” she added of the church donation.

The families collected the boxes from a table in the church hall decorated for the fall. The decorations were the handiwork of Jeanett Jones, at 78 the senior ministry’s oldest member.

“Every holiday I decorate the church,” Jones said.

Ronda Wilson, its president, said Gifted Juniors members assisted the church elders to “prepare the boxes, wrap the boxes and coordinate the giving event.”

“A lot of times on Thanksgiving and Christmas we partner together,” Wilson said.

The ministry, she said, caters to 6-year-olds up to college-age youth.

“They have a passion for helping and giving,” she said. “It allows them to get their community service hours for school.”