Around 7 p.m. Monday night, Geraldine Robinson was getting welcomes and congratulations on just being hired as Durham County's new social-serivces director.

By 9 p.m., she might well have been wondering why she took the job.

County commissioners had just d the internal auditor on her department-to-be, after social-services brass went through more than an hour of grilling and complaint over cutting the money out from under a family-service program.

"As you can see," commissioner Becky Heron told Robinson afterward, "Durham is never dull."

The Volunteer Center of Durham and Durham Social Services are looking for Durham residents to provide Thanksgiving food, cooked or un-, for needy families.

Thanksgiving "sponsors" donated meals to more than 500 families in 2007, according to the Volunteer Center, which expects increased demand this year due to "the difficult economic situation."

Sponsors buy a holiday meal for about $15 per person and deliver it in person to the family. Cash donations are also welcomed.

If interested, call Tasha Melvin at 688-8977 ext. 435.