Veda Grimaldo, 18 months, finds eating mashed potatoes with her fingers to be more efficient than using a spoon. She dined with her family Thursday at the Salvation Army Citadel's annual Thanksgiving meal for people in need in Wichita.

Elle Schrag, 5, waits for people to leave the McPherson community Thanksgiving dinner so she can give them a grab bag of fruit and candy. More than 500 bags were decorated by students at Roosevelt Elementary School for the event Thursday in McPherson.

Bill Thrall, left, of Smithville, Mo., collects a dinner plate from Byron Lewis-Neff, 10, of Shawnee, at the start of an assembly line for Thanksgiving meals in Kansas City, Mo. In addition to meals delivered Thursday to homebound elderly and disabled people, the Salvation Army served several hundred meals to people who stopped by.