"Everybody's going to walk away with a full stomach," said Jacob Wall, from Trenton.
Around 100 people were at the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, also known as TASK, to sit down with a traditional Thanksgiving Day meal.
"This is a part of a greater effort that we've been engaged in for the whole last week... This is one of our most popular meal services for both patrons, the people of the city of Trenton and volunteers," said Michelle Wexler, director of Development at Task.
Many of the dishes were donated. Some enjoying Thanksgiving dinner say this meal is important to them because they don't have family to spend the holiday with.
"They would have no Thanksgiving at all you know? Some people don't have family, so thankful for the soup kitchen. We got family with the soup kitchen," said Eric Hedgepeth, from Trenton.
In Philadelphia, meals were being prepared by volunteers with the Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance, also known as MANNA.
The meals were distributed to around 950 people.
"These meals have been designed by nutritionists and physicians to assist in healing and recovery of patients," said Basil Kapchonick, a volunteer with Manna.
Volunteers said it meant a lot to give.
"We're providing service to those who are healing and need assistance, and there's nothing like a special day like Thanksgiving to extend that into the community," said Kapchonick.
Those on the receiving end said a hot meal made their Thanksgiving very special.
Folks Action News spoke with said this goes beyond the meal -- it's the thought that counts that volunteers took the time to spend the holiday with them.