A Pascagoula soup kitchen is hoping for greater Thanksgiving donations this year to help serve those in need on the Gulf Coast, which is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

More than 200 people are expected at Our Daily Bread on Thanksgiving, said Shirley Dry, kitchen coordinator.

The menu may vary, depending upon donations, but is normally a traditional meal. It includes turkey or ham, green beans, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, cranberries, slaw or a salad. Pies and cakes are also served.

The fall migration — transient people coming out of northern states on their way to Florida for the winter — has begun, said Terry Delcuze, president of the Our Daily Bread board of directors.

“There is an entire subculture out there. Most people like you and me, who work every day, do not understand it or know about it,” Delcuze said. “The Bible tells us that the poor will always be with us and that it is our responsibility to care for them.”

It is not just homeless transients who are served, Dry said.

The kitchen provides one free hot meal to between 70 and 80 people Monday through Friday each week and on the third Saturday each month, she said. It also delivers 115 to 120 meals each day to elderly and other homebound people at their homes in Moss Point and Pascagoula.

“We will not turn anyone away,” said Dry. “I had a man in here the other day that lost his home in the storm. He is still camping out in the woods.”

The soup kitchen is serving fewer people now than before Hurricane Katrina.

“Since the storm we have a number of people from this area who are homeless or who are living in their homes but have need,” said Delcuze. “But many of the people we served were flooded out and have gone somewhere else.”

Our Daily Bread was established 24 years ago by Christian Outreach, Inc., to feed needy elderly and the homeless that qualify. It is funded by 22 Jackson County churches as well as by Northrop Grumman Corp. and Chevron, Delcuze said.