"I had to come here so I won't let them down," she said.
Outside, Teresa Smith of Walbrook Junction was marveling at the crowd, having asked her husband to hold a place in the line - one of the longest the organizers have seen in many years.
"Times are hard," said Smith, whose husband was laid off three months ago. They've sought churches' assistance in paying their bills, she said. "I've been struggling so hard."
Jillene Smith, also of Walbrook Junction but not related to Teresa, said she decided to come after seeing news reports about the event yesterday morning. She was recently laid off, she said, and her unemployment benefits haven't come in yet. When she heard the event offered household goods along with the hot meal, she decided to drop by, she said.
The charity served about 70,000 meals yesterday, Brooks said.
"With the economy the way that it is going, we are having to help the people that normally used to help us," she said.
Recognition of that greater need drew veterans and novices to the brigade of helpers.
"I had a wonderful year, and I wanted to give back," said Jennifer Brown, 28, of Lansdowne. She and Dwayne Briggs, 26, stood waiting for a task, as did a number of others in a waiting room designated for volunteers.
"I always wanted to do this when I was a kid," said Briggs, who lives in Baltimore. When a friend sent him a message about the event, he passed the word on to Brown.
Brown said she was struck not just by the numbers of the needy but by their diversity.
"It's families, it's pregnant women," she said. "I saw young, I saw old. ... It's sad."
Bill Gross has volunteered at the dinner for about a decade, his hand readily heaping helpings of hot food onto people's plates. But this year, he woke up in his "nice, warm" bed feeling he needed to do more - which is what brought him out into the cold at 7 a.m., unloading trucks filled with items to be distributed.
Gross, of Northeast Baltimore, said it seems as if the volunteers increase each year, as people "go home from this experience and tell their friends how blessed" they've been, then bring those friends with them the next year.
"It's a great thing," the Northrop Grumman draftsman said as he manned one of the fashion tents outside, where people could look through and select clothing. "You start thinking about what Thanksgiving is all about, and you realize that you have to give back."
