Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center ‘Center Table Fall Harvest' event is biggest in 5 years

The line outside the Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center started before the sun came up. The annual Center Table Fall Harvest food distribution provided Thanksgiving meals, plus 3 additional days worth of meals to families in need.

"Today is all about getting together with our neighbors doing a different type of Friendsgiving, is what I was thinking about this morning," Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center CEO/Executive Director Trina Terrell Andrews said. "It's bittersweet where we can be able to support, but it's also heartbreaking that at this stage of the game...still lots of people coming out of the pandemic, dealing with inflation, just things happening in their lives unfortunately."

The atmosphere was festive, with bands playing and volunteers smiling as they greeted each car, among them, Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki.

"There's a food desert here in this area, so there's not a lot of grocery stores, not a lot of opportunities for people to get food and groceries. So we're hopefully providing some joy and relief over the holidays," Nowitzki said. "A lot of stress around the holiday times, obviously, for families; and hopefully we can relieve some of that."

"I'm a huge fan," Tina Harris said after Nowitzki loaded her car with food and gave her his autograph. "It feels a blessing to me because I've just recently been diagnosed with breast cancer so this helps out a lot."

1,300 cars came through the line on Thursday morning. "So, this is the longest line we've ever had," Terrell Andrews said. "For it to all come together where people are coming through the line to say 'thank you' is just heartwarming. It just says, at the end of the day, we need to continue to do this where we come together and take care of one another."

H-E-B, The Mark Cuban Foundation, The Heroes Foundation, The Dirk Nowitzki Foundation, and the North Texas Food Bank helped make the 5th annual Center Table Fall Harvest possible.