AUSTIN — Even though it may not be Thanksgiving just yet, the biggest holiday meal in Austin happens Tuesday night.
Supermarket store H-E-B is holding its 29th annual Feast of Sharing -- as a part of the H-E-B Food Bank Program. Each year, 30 dinners are held across Texas and Mexico, with more than 250,000 meals served. This year, volunteers will be providing these meals to Austinites at the Palmer Event Center, as H-E-B is expecting more than 14,000 people to show up Tuesday. The company brought two of their mobile kitchens to Austin: the same ones they use when helping out with disaster relief efforts. These mobile kitchens can make thousands of meals per hour.
Felicia Pena is the public affairs manager for H-E-B and she said giving back to those who are less fortunate -- specifically this week -- is important to her company.
"It's really important to us to be able to give back in this way to our customers, to our communities, and to show them that we want to enjoy the holiday meal with them," Pena said. "It will definitely be a very busy four hours, but we're ready for all of that to start and to serve all those meals to our community."
U.S. Senator John Cornyn and Austin Mayor Steve Adler also volunteered at the event. Cornyn encouraged others to volunteer.
"Not everybody has family around them during the holiday season," he said. "It can be kind of a lonely time. So it's a great time to come out and be part of this larger family."
H-E-B employee and Feast of Sharing volunteer David Washington has been volunteering at the event for about 10 years.
"For several years, I ran the store on South Congress and Oltorf," he said. "So a lot of the folks that come in here for this event I would see shopping in my store, so I've made personal connections with some of the folks that come here."
This event is free and open to the public and there will be live music as well, with 5,000 one-day bus passes available to get through Cap Metro. If you need one of the passes, you can pick them up at any of the following HEB locations:
- H-E-B #1 at 2701 E. 7th St.
- H-E-B #2 at 6607 S. IH-35
- H-E-B #3 at 1000 E. 41st St.
- H-E-B #8 at 2400 S. Congress Ave.
- H-E-B Plus #12 at 2508 E. Riverside Dr.
- H-E-B #13 at 7112 Ed Bluestein #125
- H-E-B #15 at 9414 N. Lamar
- H-E-B #30 at 1801 E. 51s
FAVOR is also helping out by delivering 100 meals to Austin residents who cannot attend the dinner through the support of a few local nonprofits. Along with these meals, you can also get a free flu shot or learn about some social services. 20 local non-profit organizations will be there Tuesday.
The event is happening Tuesday, Nov. 20 from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m.
If you want to volunteer for next year, visit https://volunteer.uwatx.org.
Applications are filled out quickly, so be on the lookout in early October.