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GREENSBORO —  Amy Moore has bright eyes and a smile that seldom leaves her face. That’s in spite of the fact that her husband, Milton, worked all week to get enough money to get the power turned on in their Thomasville rental — but too late for Thanksgiving.

So the couple, who has fallen on hard times, headed to High Point on Thursday where they read of a group giving away Thanksgiving dinners.

“With the way things are today, there aren’t many people like this that will help you like this,” Amy said. “They really are God’s people.”

His Laboring Few ministry teamed with the Carter Brothers restaurant on Main Street to serve and deliver about 3,800 meals Thursday. The group has been putting the dinner on for several years, and organizers said this year could be one of the largest crowds they’ve had.

“We have a lot of people hurting,” said Jim Clary, one of the organizers with His Laboring Few. “We have people come pick up food and they’re crying.”

With unemployment numbers still setting records, officials at kitchens across Guilford County reported seeing not just more people but for the first time people needing services.

“We have had a huge increase in the number of working people,” said Tyra Clymer, director of emergency assistance with Greensboro Urban Ministry.

Urban Ministry provides meals and groceries to the needy.

Clymer said the group is seeing more families with a spouse who’s been laid off or has had their hours cut. Urban Ministry believes it is feeding about 500 people every day, about 100 more than this time last year.

Urban Ministry estimated it served 4,000 meals Thursday.

Sam Wood appreciates the warm food and kindness of the volunteers.

He has held retail and odd jobs his whole working life, but when he lost his last job and got divorced, he found himself on the streets for nearly two years. He jokes over pumpkin pie in the Urban Ministry’s cafeteria that life outdoors wasn’t that bad.

“As long as you’ve got a good sleeping bag,” he says smiling.

He lives in an apartment in the Smith Homes public housing community. He says he never thought he’d find himself in this situation and says it’s hard to explain it to his old friends.

“I tell them but I’m not sure if they really understand,” Wood said.

Tara Brady and her family have volunteered at Urban Ministry on Thanksgiving for three years. Brady said she noticed a change this year in the people she was serving.

“I felt this year, more than last year, they look now more like me,” she said.

A middle-class teacher, Brady knows how close families can be to poverty. Her husband, Mike, lost his job about 15 years ago, and money got tight.

They had to downsize, moving from their home into an apartment.

The family is doing well now. Her husband worked his way up to a management job with a manufacturer. But they’ve never forgotten how quickly things turned and how hard it got.

Any family can find itself in need, and that has led Brady to teach her children an important lesson: “I don’t care if you’re dumb as rocks as long as you’re nice. Everyone deserves respect and dignity.”

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com.