BALTIMORE — Turkey, ham and all the fixings.

Last year, the Bea Gaddy Thanksgiving Dinner temporarily moved to the Middle Branch Fitness Center in Cherry Hill and fed 1,500 people, but the nonprofit’s transportation budget doubled to bus people there, and renting a kitchen added $10,000 in additional costs. .

Still, Gaddy’s daughter, Cynthia Brooks, was grateful.

“I thank Mayor Scott,” Brooks said, “It was a challenge and he did everything within his limits and we had a lot of support from the Department of Recreation and everything last year. It just wasn’t…it wasn’t good. It was a challenge but We captured that moment.”

Because of ongoing maintenance work at the Patterson Park Recreation Center, Brooks had planned to return to town for a scaled-back dinner that would feed only 600 people at the American Legion on McElderry Street and provide 2,000 additional meals to senior centers and churches. Across from Baltimore.

Now the nonprofit has received notification that the work will be completed in time for the dinner party to also return to Patterson Park.

Expanding to this area, it is estimated they could feed another four thousand people last month, but this comes with its own challenges.

“We need everything,” Brooks said. “Our wish list is on our website and we need your support. We need you to volunteer. We need you to come out and help us get this together in 30 days because we didn’t expect it to be this big.”

It’s both a blessing and yet another challenge for the woman Bea Baddy would be proud of, picking up where her mother left off feeding the hungry decades ago.

“He guides me, pushes me and encourages me,” Brooks said. “I really feel that. “She and my sisters encourage me.”