HOUSTON – The organizers of Friday’s Super Feast say they just barely pulled it off with only a fraction of the volunteers they’ve had in years past. One family who saw the need to help and jumped into action says the outcome was all worth it.
It didn’t take much to convince Delia Hanson to sign her father and brother up to be volunteers at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
”I was like, we should go do that!” said Delia Hanson. “We just saw on the news that there were no people that were here and they were trying to feed a lot of people.”
For the Hansons, there was no hesitation.
”Everything was good. Of course, when we told Caden (my son) about it, he was like, ‘Yeah let’s do it’,” said Delia’s father Steven Hanson.
While the family spent all Christmas Eve morning dishing out meals and helping folks to their cars with presents, they said they feel they’ve received the gifts.
”It’s a great feeling. I saw from as soon as I walked in here today that people were going to be needing help,” said Caden Hansen.
Super Feast Captain Alejandro Becerra says the help was crucial in order for them to be able to serve the roughly 25,000 families that ended up coming.
”Up until about this morning, we were really concerned about the number of volunteers, the number of food, number of toys and whatnot. So, we we’re able to pull it out in just the nick of time,” Becerra said.
The event was made possible at the hands of roughly 3,100 volunteers, significantly fewer than the 5,000 that organizers had hoped for.
The Hansons know that less help is much better than none.
“It always feels good to give back to the people that are less fortunate. Especially if you are fortunate enough yourself to enjoy a good Christmas,” Caden said.
”A lot of people, they were like ‘God Bless, Merry Christmas’ they were very grateful we were there to help serve them,” Delia said.
To stay ahead of the curve, organizers say they are already planning next year’s Super Feasts. They’re asking people to consider volunteering and making donations.