ANAHEIM – Under increasingly cloudy skies, a line snaked around the parking lot of the Honda Center as tens of thousands of people – many of them blue collar workers – arrived Thursday for a full Thanksgiving meal.

People like Bill Grove of San Bernardino, Rosalinda Garcia of Santa Ana and Rita Corpin, also of Santa Ana.

“Times may be tough,” said Grove, 63, a part-time security guard, who struggled to find work after his parents were killed in a hit-and-run accident in Kingman, Ariz., five years ago. “But if we hold a little love in our hearts for the world and others, it will turn the world into a positive place.”

This was Grove’s first time at the meal that has been a tradition in Orange County for 25 years, started originally by Anaheim restaurateur Frank Garcia and now served through his nonprofit, We Give Thanks, Inc., with the Honda Center as the host.

By the time all the meals were served, 20,000 were expected to have been fed with the help of about 2,000 volunteers, some of whom stirred giant vats behind the scenes in the parking lot, away from the dining tables decorated in fall colors.

Steam spewed from the vats as volunteers strained vegetables, stirred gravy and mashed potatoes.

More than 600 turkeys, 3,000 pies – pumpkin, apple, pecan – more than 100 pounds of gravy, 5,000 pounds of potatoes, 2,000 pounds of carrots, 1,000 pounds of yellow squash and an equal amount of green zucchini and onions, were served, along with thousands of dinner rolls.

Hairstylist Rosalinda Garcia’s son Angel, 7, stood in front of the carrots and zucchini tray in the serving line and eyed the orange and green stuff with apprehension.

When he had passed through the food line, his plate had turkey, some gravy, a roll and a drumstick too big for his little hands to hold.

He loves turkey, said his mother, who came with her other three kids, her husband, her sister and brother-in-law for the Thanksgiving meal that she said they would otherwise not be able to have.

Work has been slow for her and her husband, Aldo Garcia, a landscaper.

“We’re thankful for the food and the opportunity to be here and enjoy Thanksgiving with others like us who can’t have (this) meal at home,” said Rosalinda Garcia, 36.

Corpin, 70, who recently retired after teaching world history for decades at La Quinta High School in Westminster, said she is thankful for her cat, Baby, who returned home Wednesday after having gone missing for four days.

“That was my Thanksgiving present,” said the educator, who is single and said she enjoys the people and the music at the meal.

Three months pregnant, Misty Bryant, 32, of Brea, scooped the veggies, standing next to her brother-in-law Robert Gay, 38, of Tustin, who was a server.

Bryant’s husband, William, was also volunteering, refilling steaming food trays.

Expecting their first baby, the couple wants to start a tradition of serving meals every year “to give back and not just to take,” Misty said.

After her meal service is done here, she planned to finish preparing a turkey already in the oven at home and sit down for a meal with her small but soon-to-be-growing family.