Three organizations have come together to serve up Thanksgiving dinner to those in need: The North Texas Food Bank, in collaboration with the University of North Texas at Dallas (UNT Dallas) and Tom Thumb / Albertsons, will host a Thanksgiving food distribution on Saturday, November 23.

Each participating family will receive a turkey and approximately 60 pounds of food. The event is open to the public and will take place at UNT Dallas at 7300 University Hills Blvd. in Southern Dallas from 9 am-12 pm or until supplies last.

Participants in the mobile distribution do not need to register in advance but must have a vehicle for the drive-through event. Food will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. While no identification is required, attendees will be asked to provide their family size and zip code.

According to a recent study, Texas has become the leader in food insecurity, surpassing California with a food insecurity rate of 16.4 percent or nearly 5 million residents, more than a third of whom are children.

In NTFB’s 13-county service area, around 778,000 individuals face food insecurity, translating to 1 in 7 people, with nearly 286,860 being children. Dallas County accounts for more than 50 percent of NTFB's food-insecure population and ranks sixth in the nation for total food-insecure individuals and fifth for food-insecure children.

Tom Thumb/Albertsons is committed to addressing local food insecurity through its Recipe for Change initiative. The company champions innovative programs and partnerships to help break the cycle of hunger, donating millions of pounds of food annually to local food banks and pantries. Recently, Albertsons Companies announced $9 million in multiyear grants to three nonprofits dedicated to food security, with NTFB among the recipients.

“We have a long-standing commitment to hunger relief and are pleased to collaborate with the North Texas Food Bank and UNT Dallas in helping to ease the financial burden that the holidays present for many families,” says Tom Thumb / Albertsons PR director Christy Lara. “We are dedicated to fueling innovative programs that aim not just to feed our neighbors in need but also to help break the cycle of hunger.”

UNT Dallas has served as a partner to the North Texas Food Bank since 2020, regularly hosting mobile food distributions on campus alongside NTFB. Each month, UNT Dallas hosts a free, drive-through food distribution event to provide relief to students and the Southern Dallas community members in need of support. Hundreds of students and faculty volunteer for the monthly campus food distributions.

UNT Dallas also established the Trailblazers Care Pantry, an on-campus resource for students that offers non-perishable and perishable food items, hygiene products, and more to UNT Dallas students. The pantry also includes a Career Closet that provides clothing items to students to use for internships and job interviews.

In addition to the Thanksgiving distribution at UNT Dallas, NTFB purchased and distributed approximately 30,000 turkeys through its network of about 500 food pantries and organizations.

There is also a second giveaway in West Dallas — a turkey dinner distribution on November 22 at The Texas Rangers Youth Academy, in partnership with Buckner International and Kroger, in which turkeys and side dishes will be provided to hundreds of West Dallas families. Several Texas Rangers players will be on-site to help volunteers distribute food. However, all recipients are preregistered, and the event is not open to the public.