This Annual Houston Thanksgiving Feast Serves 20,000

When event organizers in Houston, Texas, dubbed their annual Thanksgiving charity meal the Super Feast, they weren’t kidding. Each year, volunteers and donors work together to feed more than 20,000 of the city’s homeless and other impoverished residents.

The event is so big it’s held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston to help manage the enormous number of people who wait in line for turkeys, side dishes, and other donations like clothing and health screenings. The Center essentially morphs into a giant dining hall, with volunteers on-hand to serve food that can take days to prepare. In 2013, event planners estimated they served 7000 pounds of dressing, 10,000 pounds of sweet potatoes, and 8000 pounds of turkey.

“You can fill the potholes on the streets, but there are a lot of people that I’m seeing that have potholes in their lives,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who visited the Super Feast, said in 2016. “Today, in a very strong way, we are filling the potholes in their lives.”

Past events have also included areas for visitors to get legal help and even haircuts provided by area barbers. The assembly is put on by the City Wide Club, a Houston nonprofit that routinely secures 5000 volunteers for the dinner. The Super Feast is in its 39^th year.