CHESAPEAKE — The annual Chesapeake Community Thanksgiving Service is going back to its roots as St. Ann’s Catholic Church plays host this year.

For years the holiday tradition was held at one of the village churches that support the Community Mission Outreach program. However recently the venue was changed to the Chesapeake Middle School. But now the service will rotate among the village churches each November.

The service will begin at 6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 21, and feature the Rev. Wayne McDonald of the Chesapeake Christian Church as the speaker. Big Branch Church choir under the direction of Kelly Brock will provide the music. There will be a small supper of finger foods following the service.

This year the CMO will provide at least 550 Christmas food baskets for the needy in Lawrence County.

“And we are really happy that Toys for Tots will help us with toys this year,” the Rev. Charles Moran, pastor at St. Ann’s, said. “They were looking for a place that provides good service for children.”

All donations received at the Thanksgiving service will go to the mission’s food pantry.

“It will be helping with those baskets and food after Christmas,” Moran said. “Those baskets really drain our community outreach.”

On Dec. 11 volunteers from the county will go to Louisa, Ky., to bring back food from Father Ralph Beiting’s Appalachian Mission Center to augment CMO supplies.

Those provisions will be divided among Chesapeake, Ashland, Ky., and St. Joseph’s Church in Huntington, W.Va.

“The Lord called us to be a family so it is good for the community to come together to be the Lord’s body and give praise to the Father,” Moran said.