For three years now, Bill and Tom Contoravdis, owners of Athens Pizza and Pasta at 959 E. Main Street, have worked with a local nonprofit, Barbers Against Hunger, to provide good old American Thanksgiving dinners for people who might otherwise go without.

And every Thanksgiving, word of their generosity gets out to more people.

“The first year we served only 68, and the rest of the food we fed about 400 at the Tacoma Mission. The second year we bumped up to 327 inside, and about 300 at the Tacoma Mission, so every year, it’s getting bigger and bigger,” said Bill Contoravdis. “Whatever is left over goes to the mission in Tacoma.”

Donations are appreciated.

It all happens from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Nov. 27 at the restaurant, traditional Thanksgiving meals of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, roll and pumpkin pie. And it’s free. All you’ve gotta do is show up.

Bill decided in 2012, after years of thinking about it, that he wanted to host an annual Thanksgiving Day feed. Problem was that neither he nor his brother knew anything about promoting such an event.

Fortunately, the restaurateurs and Barbers Against Hunger already knew each other. Athens Pizza and Pasta had in the past allowed the group to post fliers for its annual food drive there. The restaurant also set aside one Sunday during the drive to donate 20 percent of its receipts to Barbers to support that group’s good works.

Barbers Against Hunger’s yearly calendar starts in May with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Juvenile Diabetes Walk, continues with car washing, and ends in the parking lot between the Valley Barber Shop and the Justice Center with a coat drive on Sunday, Dec. 21.

Its first job in the present push is to get the word out, but Randy Simon and Alex Green say they and their families wouldn’t miss helping out on the big day for anything.

“I feel there’s a need to give back to the community, so who better than people who work within the community to give back to those in need,” said Simon.

Green, an Air Force veteran, a carpenter and a member of Barbers Against Hunger, explained the hopes of everyone concerned.

“We’d like to grow this thing until it’s too big for the Athens Pizza shop,” Green said.