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A holiday assistance program became a true community service project when students from Bob Hope School and members of the Lamar State College Port Arthur softball team joined the Port Arthur Rotary Club in packing up Thanksgiving meals for local families.

The groups came together at the Carl A. Parker Multipurpose Center and filled 125 boxes with rice, macaroni and cheese, peas, green beans and other traditional Thanksgiving food items.

The boxes were then brought to Community Care Prayer Outreach, from where they will be distributed along with a holiday ham to Port Arthur families.

It has been a service project of the Port Arthur Rotary Club for at least two decades.

“They give it to Community Care Prayer Outreach because we have clients that we help with food, clothing and different things — basic needs,” Executive Director Libby Arnold said.

“We always give people at Thanksgiving everything that goes along with a Thanksgiving meal.”

That, Arnold said, includes a turkey or ham.

“Every child, no matter what their life is about…children, they’re just there, and it’s just a situation of them being a victim of their environment,” she said. “Nobody picks their parents.”

According to Arnold, this year the group will be giving pre-sliced hams.

“We know elderly people aren’t going to eat two pounds at one time. Since it’s sliced, when they open it, they can take part of it and freeze it,” she said.

“And they have some not just for Thanksgiving but afterwards. We are helping people who really need it.”

On Saturday, Rotarians will participate in another group service project and join the 100 Black Men of Greater Beaumont with building and delivering beds to Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a non-profit that provides beds to children that do not have one.