“Hollywood” Potter, right, receives a meal from Jonathan Hartzell, volunteer and owner of Detroit Shipping Company, during the Full Plates, Full Hearts event.

Chef Genevieve Vang spends a normal week in Detroit’s Midtown turning out Vietnamese-inflected fare — like crab rangoon appetizers, and pork steak with sticky rice — for crowds of hipsters equipped with Visas and MasterCards.

On Thursday, though, Vang and a half-dozen of her staff climaxed two days of cooking for free, then volunteered their time to pack 400 hot roast turkey dinners. They were free to all who showed up.

And show up they did — on foot, one pushing a walker, and by bicycle, as well in cars. Word had gotten around to the needy denizens of the city’s Cass Corridor that, for the third Thanksgiving in a row, deluxe holiday meals were on the house at the unique Detroit Shipping Co. — a food court built from 22 giant steel shipping containers welded together, and home to six pocket-size restaurants.

“It’s everything homemade,” said Vang, overseeing the operation in a spotless white chef’s outfit and mask.

“Especially with COVID, it’s very difficult for the people out there,” she said, gesturing to the front door and its view of Peterboro, between Cass and Second avenues.

“I baked a chocolate cake and a yellow cake, and we roast the turkey,” she said. Next door, inside the food court, “Chef Max” at COOP Caribbean Fusion served up sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, plus macaroni and cheese, said Alexis Fox, manager of the Caribbean eatery.

Chef Genevieve Vang, left, (Executive chef at Bangkok 96 Street Food) assembles meals for the Full Plates, Full Hearts event at the Detroit Shipping Company that provides anyone with a Thanksgiving Day meal on Nov. 26, 2020, in Detroit. People received bagged food at the entrance. The meal was prepared by COOP Caribbean Fusion (Chef Maxcel Hardy) and Bangkok 96 Street Food (Chef Genevieve Vang).

Fox said she missed spending Thanksgiving Day with her son, but viewing the busy scene of chafing dishes steaming with hot food, she added: “This is all from the heart — growing up, we never had it too easy, so giving back right now I feel is a blessing.”

Just then, the front door opened and a man in a worn parka stepped in with quizzical eyes peering over his mask. Shipping Co. co-owner Jon Hartzell stood six paces away, equally masked up and set to greet him: “Hello, sir! You’ve come to the right place. One dinner or two?”

The visitor, 69-year-old Charles Lee, flashed a smile and said, “Well, I don’t want to be gluttonous but I’ll take two.” Moments later, Hartzell handed him two dinners, piping hot. “A friend of mine told me about this,” Lee said. He’d had a part-time job at the Masonic Temple before the pandemic, “but we haven’t had any shows” and so the holiday handout was most welcome, Lee said. Looking around as he walked out, he said, “I love this building. … God bless you!”

The pandemic has more people seeking food assistance than ever, said Ryan Hertz, CEO of Pontiac-based Lighthouse.

“We have people who were struggling before the pandemic, with unmet needs going into the pandemic, and that need is still there for the homeless, the poor, the working poor.

“And then you have people who weren’t struggling before, but now the pandemic has burned through the supports they had. They’ve lost their job. They’ve encountered illness,” Hertz said.

Yet, the crisis also seemed to trigger an outpouring of generosity, he said. More people are giving donations and volunteering at Lighthouse assistance centers — “the only silver lining I’ve seen to this year,” he said.

From left, Randy Walsh, Erica Markoff, and Jennifer Walsh, organize meals for the Full Plates, Full Hearts event at the Detroit Shipping Company.

Besides the dozens of walk-in and takeout recipients, the Shipping Co.’s holiday outreach got stretched this year by deliveries of more than half its output to several nonprofit institutions in Detroit. Some dinners went to Alternatives for Girls; others to COTS and NSO, which operate homeless shelters, and one delivery van simply planned to park outside the Rosa Parks Transit Center in downtown Detroit, “and just see who walks up,” Hartzell said. Bennie Brown, a driver for the Horatio Williams Foundation, picked up 40 dinners, in not nearly his first stop of the day.

“I’ve been at this since 4o’clock this morning,” he said, laughing and shaking his head.

From left, Devenea Jackson, George Tinnon, and Alexis Foxman, assemble meals for the Full Plates, Full Hearts event at the Detroit Shipping Company that provides anyone with a Thanksgiving Day meal on Nov. 26, 2020, in Detroit. “It’s not different because it serves the same purpose,” Foxman said regarding the limitations that COVID-19 has placed on people.

Last year was so different, said Leslie Pardo, spokeswoman for the Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association, a key sponsor of Thursday’s dinner giveaway.

“People were able to come inside and sit down, with kids running around. This year, we’re keeping everyone safe. But we’re still filling hearts and bellies,” Pardo said.