It's a record-breaking year for SERVE in Manassas and its annual Operation Turkey.

Of course, being able to help around 1,600 households has both good and bad connotations.

The plus side for the non-profit service organization is that the low-income families that signed up for assistance will be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with a proper, full meal.

Those meals were able to be distributed this past week at the Manassas Adventist Preparatory School gymnasium in the Irongate neighborhood off of Sudley Road.

Strength in numbers factored key in the organizational effort as over 400 volunteers offered to sort and stuff boxes and crates and help out in any other way.

In fact, there were so many volunteers that SERVE volunteer coordinator Jan Hawkins had to turn people away.

"This is something the entire family can take part of," said Hawkins.

The flip side, of course, is that there are so many local people stuck on hard times in an area as affluent as Prince William County.

"It's definitely an increase. We are really seeing a larger number of people needing assistance due to the state of the economy," said Hawkins

Meanwhile, the level of donations stayed about the same as last year, according to

By the end of Thursday, 1,550 households has signed up to receive assistance, with roughly 50 or so more expected to be added by the end of Friday.

Hawkins suspected about 1,400 of them would actually be on hand to pick up items between Nov. 20-21. The previous record stood at around 1,200.

Some volunteers making the effort possible included the young ladies in Girl Scout Troop 1908, based out of Signal Hill Elementary School on the east end of Manassas.

Suzette McCarthy, a volunteer leader of the group, said the fifth graders helped sort food and worked on Thanksgiving cards, which is a new addition to the prepared donation hauls this year.

McCarthy and fellow leader Mary Crowe explained that the troop group routinely engages in community services, like helping out at the Birmingham Green nursing home and collecting hats and gloves for the B.A.R.N. shelter in Bristow.

"They thrive in it," said Crowe.

Those preparing the donation bins this past Thursday and Friday sorts through thousands of packaged food items spread out all along the scratched and worn wooden floor of the old gym, under the glow of the 15 working overhead lights out of 21 hanging from the ceiling.

Some corporate groups pitched in too, with Wegman's in Gainesville donating 1,100 reusable bags and Cardinal Bank adding in an extra 200, according to Hawkins.

SERVE staffers wearing lime green shirts with the Operation Turkey logo, such as Hawkins and two women named Deb and Shirley who struck around well past the 5 p.m. closing schedule on Friday to help shut down shop.

If there did turn out to be too many items to distribute, those surplus goods would be loaded into a McCollister's moving van and driven to SERVE's Manassas pantry, which runs throughout the year.

"You can't over-donate food to us," said Hawkins.