Central Texas Food Bank makes sure everyone has a turkey dinner

This Thanksgiving, as families gather to celebrate an overabundance of turkey and stuffing, thousands in Austin will struggle to just put food on the table. A local organization is working with families to make sure every family has a turkey dinner this Thanksgiving holiday.

Thanksgiving is a day of sharing with those around you and counting your blessings.

But for some the holidays can bring extra stress, a large financial burden and for people living with low income and food insecurity, this time of year can be particularly rough.

That's where El Buen Samaritano's "Hands for Hope" comes in.

It's an annual community-wide event that collects traditional thanksgiving food and money, for underserved families in the Austin area. The organizations Chief Executive Officer Iliana Gilman said she’s watched the event grow over the years.

"The reason this event is so special to the community is because it's the perfect expression of faith love and service to the community,” said Gilman.

She said residents and business got involved and helped with donations and raised money.

"We had a really wonderful turn out we were able to have all of the turkey's donated by HEB this year and we had a hundred more than we typically do, the demand was outrageous,” said Gilman.

Without this event, she said many families may not have a Thanksgiving dinner.

"Most of our constituents live under 100% under the federal poverty level so they would never have access to holiday meals the way we give them out here," said Gilman.

On Saturday, a couple hundred volunteers handed out around 1,000 turkeys to families.

"We had a thousand plus hours in volunteer work. So all this for sure wouldn't be possible or here without our volunteers,” said Carlos Roque a volunteer.

The money raised goes towards funding other programs in the community. "We serve about 10,500 families a year through our food pantry our English classes and clinic,” said Gilman.

Roque said it's events like this that remind them of the true meaning of the holiday season. "Just seeing the how we are helping all the families here. I know how grateful the families are."