The weather was perfect for the Thanksgiving Mega Mobile Food Market that the Tarrant Area Food Bank held Thursday. It’s estimated about 10,000 people passed through the AT&T Stadium parking lot for food.
When you see the line of cars at the Tarrant Area Food Bank Thanksgiving Mega Mobile Food Market you can truly see the need. Hundreds of cars stretched around AT&T Stadium with people needing a little help with a Thanksgiving meal.
"The top client we see come to these distributions is a single mom and typically has a couple of children and is working multiple jobs to put food on the table," Tarrant Area Food Bank President and CEO Julie Butner said.
Then there are people on fixed incomes.
"I'm retired right now, in between jobs right now,” food market attendee James Smallwood said. “I'm going to look for another job because the way things are you need extra money these days."
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Others just had recent unexpected medical bills come up.
"It's really hit my daughter and my son-in-law, and my grandson financially because he didn't have insurance at the time,” food market attendee Lisa Ingraham-Garcia said. “Things like this to help when things hit hard -- [it] means a lot."
The 200 American Airlines volunteers didn't ask questions. They just loaded turkeys and more no matter the reason.
"This year, because of inflation, we are actually seeing more families than we expect to see,” Butner said. “I think wallets are really being hit with food costs rising as they have and gasoline and so forth."
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Other charities, like Mitchell Ward and the MW Cares Foundation, helped provide the turkeys.
"I know people like this, family like I have in certain places in the world are hungry and they need food,” MW Cares Foundation Founder and CEO Mitchell Ward said. “Sometimes they are too prideful to ask, but they just need somebody to step up and do it and they'll just show up."
Another Mega Mobile Food Market will provide food to families from 9 a.m. until noon on Nov. 21 at the Mansfield ISD Center for Performing Arts. To find learn about other food giveaways or to find food, click here.
