(MONEY Magazine) – If you want Thanksgiving to mean more this year than pumpkin pie and football games, try helping those who are less fortunate than you are. Thousands of charities need people to donate, prepare, deliver or serve turkey dinners on our 131-year-old national holiday of plenty. Not sure where to offer your help? Start with your church or synagogue; many offer meals to the needy or homebound. Or call your employer's benefits department to see whether your boss sponsors a holiday program. For example, each Thanksgiving, Joseph E. Seagram & Sons turns the lobby of its Park Avenue headquarters into a festive dining room where employees serve turkey and cranberry sauce to 250 residents of local senior citizens homes. Other ways to help: -- Call Second Harvest, a national coalition of 185 hunger organizations (800-532-3663). These food banks accept donations and can put you in touch with an affiliated soup kitchen that needs help serving meals on Thanksgiving. -- The Points of Light Foundation (800-879-5400) can refer you to one of 500 volunteer centers around the country. In turn, the local group will match you with a charity. -- Sign up with the Salvation Army. Most of its 1,300 major local chapters serve a Thanksgiving dinner for the poor and homeless, run largely by volunteers. -- Meals-on-Wheels groups deliver year round to the homebound elderly through some 700 social service agencies. The need for volunteers is especially acute on Thanksgiving, says Meals/Wheels America director Virginia Pitman, because most government food programs are closed. To participate, call your state or local government agency for the aging. -- Invite someone needy to share Thanksgiving dinner at your home. Your kindness will be the best kind of helping you can dish out on Thanksgiving Day.