PENSACOLA - As always Pensacola showed the true meaning of Thanksgiving today.

Volunteers gave up the chance to sleep in late and put off their own Thanksgiving meals to make sure others had a holiday feast.

To these volunteers, it was just a little sacrifice to give others something to be thankful for.

For weeks, they've sought donations of food. For days, they've been preparing it. They'll spend hours delivering and serving Thanksgiving meals to the homeless and helpless.

This day has brought an army of willing hands and hearts to the Waterfront Rescue Mission.

"My entire family is here right now; the immediate family and my best friend and my nana are here. And we're just doing it as a family to help other families," said 15 year-old volunteer Gabrielle Grimaldi.

For parents this is an opportunity to teach one of life's lessons.

"I want their lives to have meaning like mine," said Sally Grimaldi. "I get as much, if not more, back from volunteering than the people that I'm helping. It comes back tenfold to me."

One of their deliveries consisted of 17 meals.

"Now more than ever because of the way the world is... there's a lot of things that need to be done in the world and everybody can make their own contributions," said Robbie Schaff, feeding the homebound.

A lot of the young people have figured that out.

"I do a lot more community service than actually working to get paid. So, it just makes me feel good at the end of the day that I could help them instead of just sleeping in," said 16 year-old volunteer Chelsie Carpenter.

Tommy Sterling is here for very personal reasons.

"I graduated from here and it just touched me. It's part of changing my life," said Sterling.

He was chased here by Hurricane Katrina; homeless and addicted. The mission was his salvation.

"Give glory to God because without him I wouldn't be even thinking about these people. He gave me when I was in need, so," said Tommy sterling, just giving back.

It's just wonderful to see, from military, to high school to college students to moms and dads, dads and daughters, just from all walks of life, it's phenomenal," said Mission board president Judge Ken Bell.

Phenomenal indeed. More than 2000 souls were fed by the hands of volunteers.Waterfront Mission Feeds Thousands