Feast of Sharing Wednesday at Jacob Brown

Imagine cooking a Thanksgiving meal for a family of six.

Then envision cooking a Thanksgiving dinner for a family of 11,000.

This is what’s going to happen today as H-E-B prepares for its 17th annual Feast of Sharing to be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, at the Jacob Brown Auditorium on International Boulevard.

The H-E-B mobile kitchen will roll into town, where H-E-B partners and others will begin to prepare the meal.

The feast will include the traditional Thanksgiving Day fixings such as turkey, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, vegetables and pumpkin pie.

There will also be plenty of rolls and drinks to go around plus entertainment provided by area schools.

Joe Lucio, store director of the H-E-B on East Elizabeth Street, said the cooks will be preparing more meals this year compared to last year’s feast. This is due to the state of the economy and the increase numbers of the unemployed.

"We took that in to consideration" when deciding how many meals to serve, Lucio said.

For some families, this will be the only Thanksgiving meal they probably will have this year.

Last year, about 9,000 meals were provided.

There will be 800 volunteers on hand to decorate and prepare the auditorium for Wednesday’s feast with about 50 percent of that number being employees with the Brownsville Independent School District, Lucio said.

New this year will be a shuttle bus that will transport residents to and from Jacob Brown Auditorium.

Transportation is free of charge and the shuttle bus will pick up people from the bus terminal at Market Square in downtown Brownsville. The shuttle will run from about 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Market Square is located off of 12th Street between East Jefferson and East Adams streets.

The shuttle bus was added this year because of lack of parking around the area due to ongoing construction at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College.

The H-E-B- Feast of Sharing holiday dinners began in 1989 with the first dinners held in Corpus Christi and Laredo.

The dinners were inspired by H-E-B’s Food Bank Assistance Program, which works to prevent hunger in Texas and Mexico, according to an H-E-B press release. Today, 30 Feast of Sharing dinners area held across Texas and into Mexico, serving more than 250,000 meals.