HOUSTON – Turkey, dressing, green beans and peach cobbler were just a few of the dishes Houston families enjoyed Wednesday at this year's 36th annual Christmas Eve Big Feast, held at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Sponsored by the City Wide Club, the event provided families in need with a hot meal for the Christmas Holiday. And this year, the number in need was even greater than organizers had seen in the past.
Stephanie Lewis, Project Director for City Wide Club, said, "The people here to receive the services is tremendous. We're prepared for 15,000, and we know right now, we have at least 5,000 more than that. We'll have well over 20,000 people here today."
Over 5,000 volunteers were on hand to make this year's event a success-- all with one goal in mind-- feeding Houston's less fortunate. One of them, Robert Goins, has been volunteering for the past 19 years and says he loves helping his fellow Houstonians.
"It's a time for us to give back to the City and just show how much need there is out there and give whenever we can," said Goins.
And those who enjoyed the meal were grateful for everyone's act of kindness.
"It just shows the Christmas spirit and stuff like that, and that there are people out here that actually care," said one of the attendees.
But, the feast wasn't all about the food. Santa took time out of his busy schedule to take pictures with the children, too. And best of all, each child went home with something to brighten up their Christmas day.
Volunteer Darian Lewis, or the "Toy Captain" as he cheerfully called himself, was in charge of a team of volunteers who distributed thousands of toys to the children at the feast.
"We're passing out toys to all the girls and boys that come to our feeding from ages zero to 16." Although this year's need was higher than anticipated, Lewis was confident they would still be able to send every child home with a new toy.
"We've never run out…and we're excited about the fact that this year we're not going to run out. So every child is going to get a toy," said Lewis.
Besides a hot meal and toys, organizers also provided clothes to attendees. But, probably most remarkable of all the things, organizers also distributed bags of food to each family, in hopes of providing them with a meal that lasted beyond today.
"We tried to put enough staple ingredients in to last the family two to three days," said Lewis.