North Texas Food Bank Thanksgiving Distribution at UNT Dallas Will Serve 500 Families on November 21

Southern Dallas families planning a Thanksgiving table have a date to circle: Saturday, November 21, when the North Texas Food Bank, the University of North Texas at Dallas and Tom Thumb / Albertsons hold their Thanksgiving food distribution on the UNT Dallas campus at 7300 University Hills Boulevard.

The drive-through event runs from 9 a.m. to noon, or while supplies last, and will provide approximately 500 families with a turkey and roughly 60 pounds of nutritious food. No registration is required and no ID is needed, but participants must arrive in a vehicle; food is first-come, first-served, and families will be asked to share their household size and ZIP code.

The need behind the event is measured in the partners' own announcement: Feeding America reports that Texas has the highest number of food-insecure individuals in the nation and that Dallas–Fort Worth ranks fourth among major U.S. metros, with nearly 800,000 neighbors — including 290,000 children — facing hunger across the food bank's 12-county service area, more than 60 percent of them in Dallas County. “North Texas families are carrying a lot right now, and many are feeling the strain more acutely as the holidays approach,” NTFB President and CEO Trisha Cunningham said in the announcement.

UNT Dallas has been a hunger-relief partner since 2020, hosting monthly mobile distributions that have already provided more than 181,000 pounds of food to approximately 2,800 families this year, and the food bank says it has purchased and distributed approximately 26,000 turkeys through its network of 500 partner pantries and organizations this season. Neighbors who cannot make the Nov. 21 event can find a nearby pantry or mobile distribution through the food bank's website.