Even more giving this Thanksgiving
‘Parade of cars’ lines up for food help that replaced city’s canceled holiday tradition
Traffic backed up for blocks Saturday morning around Houston’s NRG Stadium as thousands of people flocked to the city’s Thanksgiving food distribution — many to leave with a trunk full of holiday groceries but others to be turned away empty-handed after supplies ran out.
The massive operation kicked off at 8 a.m. Saturday, but organizers said the first car showed up at 1 a.m.
“That just shows you how great the need is,” said Lisa Helfman, public affairs director for HEB, the grocer that donated much of the food.
Organizers shut the gates to the stadium’s parking lot on McNee Road around 2 p.m. after providing people in 7,600 vehicles with groceries, such as ham, green beans and pumpkin pie to make a traditional Thanksgiving meal.
The food distribution event, hosted by the Mayor’s Office of Special Events, took the place of the city’s annual Thanksgiving Day parade, which was canceled for the first time in its 71year history due to the COVID-19 spike.
Instead of floats and live bands, music played from a speaker and people sat isolated behind rolled-up windows — but the spirit of gratitude remained, said many of the representatives from sponsors Cigna, Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Reliant, Goya and Houston Food Bank.
“This one is more emotional,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner. “Because instead of the floats, it’s a parade of cars based on people’s needs.”
Turner showed up in boots and his own pair of gloves to join the action.
“We got your turkey and your pie,” he said to one driver, hold
ing up each of the items at the driver’s window before placing them in her trunk.
Susan Christian, the city’s director of special events, said swapping parade activities with a meal distribution was a natural fit.
“There is so much need — people have lost their jobs and they’ve had their hours cut back,” Christian said. “There’s a lot of people living on the fringe.”
The assembly-line-style event served roughly 1,000 cars per hour, Christian said.
Orange traffic cones marked four lanes where cars pulled up at a series of tents, directed by volunteers holding “stop” and “go” signs. Volunteers unboxed crates of food and carted the items into the open trunks of each waiting car.
“It’s like the line never ends,” said volunteer Brittney Williams at the second-to-last tent. “They’re coming for days.”
Williams, a 34-year-old researcher, loaded a gallon of milk and a hickory-smoked ham into car after car after car. “You have a good day,” she called out to each driver.
Williams and other members of Transforming Faith Christian Center typically volunteer together at a senior center for Thanksgiving, but the pandemic squandered those plans. The outdoor, drive-through distribution was a safe alternative to achieve the same goal — giving back to the community.
“When you see people who are struggling, it’s up to us to step up,” Williams said.
Food insecurity has spiked during the pandemic, with hundreds of thousands of families in need, said Brian Greene, president and CEO of the Houston Food Bank.
“These families are struggling, and that’s not going away after Thanksgiving,” Greene said. “I’m really glad to be here, I want to be here — but those families in those cars, they don’t want to be here.”
Across the tent, volunteers danced to the Commodore’s 1977 hit “Brick House” while someone dropped off another crate stacked high with boxes of hams, soon to be whisked into waiting cars and eaten around Thanksgiving tables.
“Let’s go, let’s go y’all,” said Laura Lane, a Houston resident who owns a financial services company, encouraging the handful of volunteers working the milk-and-ham-distribution table beside her. “I love my city. When it comes to helping and feeding, we’re good for it.”
Tina Jackson walked away from the walk-up tent with a grocery cart of boxes containing milk, turkey, potatoes, pies, rolls, onions and green beans. The 55-year-old Sugar Land resident lost her job in a school cafeteria this year. The district cut her position because of the limited number of students attending school in person.
For the holiday this week, Jackson plans to stay home and cook with her sister, mother, son and grandson.
“I feel like this is a blessing for us because without it we probably wouldn’t have had as much food to feed the family,” Jackson said.
Before she arrived Saturday morning, the distributors ran out of her favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal: ham.
“But it’s OK,” she said, loading up the backseat of her car. “So we’ll enjoy the turkey.”