Carlos Escobedo, a biomedical sciences freshman, carries Thanksgiving meal plates as a volunteer during H-E-B Feast of Sharing, held Wednesday at the Jacob Brown Auditorium in Brownsville. About 800 volunteers served food, which included turkey, stuffing, vegetables, bread, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and soft drinks. MICHELLE ESPINOZA/THE RIDER
More than 10,000 meals were served at the Jacob Brown Auditorium on the Texas Southmost College campus for the “Feast of Sharing” on Wednesday.
H-E-B Grocery Stores hosts the four-hour-long event annually throughout Texas to provide holiday meals and good cheer. Balloons, flowers and tablecloths gave the auditorium a Thanksgiving atmosphere. Besides Brownsville, other feasts were held in McAllen, Weslaco, Rio Grande City, Port Isabel and Harlingen, among other cities.
Feast of Sharing is the culmination of a year-round commitment H-E-B makes to fighting hunger, according to the company’s website.
“This is just a way to say thank you to the community,” said Refugio Chapa, Feast of Sharing co-chair and central checkout operations manager at the Harlingen No. 3 store. “[It is] to help the community here in Brownsville.”
The event has been going on for 24 years and more than 800 people volunteer each year to give back to the community.
Chapa said volunteers and partners love participating in the annual event.
“It takes about nine months to plan everything, from the volunteers to everything behind the scenes,” he said. “We love it.”
Members of the Brownsville community were also happy and satisfied with the event.
“They gave us turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans and stuffing,” Brownsville resident Maria said in Spanish. “Everything was very good. They even gave us dessert: pumpkin pie, very well served.”
Attendees enjoyed live music inside the auditorium, while a disc jockey played outside. Popcorn and water were served outside the auditorium.
TSC nursing student Stephen Serrano said that events like this one make him feel happy.
“Seeing the elderly people this happy makes me feel happy, too,” Serrano said. “Everyone is happy. There is people dancing and there’s a DJ.”
