ARLINGTON, Texas – The Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic teamed up with Tarrant Area Food Bank and several community groups to host a Mega Mobile Market on Friday morning at AT&T Stadium.
 
The event was the largest food distribution of any kind to date in the North Texas area, distributing 778,090 pounds of Thanksgiving-related food, including turkey, chicken and other related groceries to 9,154 families. The amount distributed was almost double of pre-event expectations.
 
"We gave each one of these families 85 pounds of food – a 15-pound turkey along with pantry items that will last them through the week," said Julie Butner, President & Chief Executive Officer, Tarrant Area Food Bank. "It breaks your heart to see so many people who need help right now, many of them who have never needed our help before."
 
"You could see from the long lines the strong needs in our community. It happened last week at Fair Park and it happened here today," said Rick Baker, President/Chief Executive Officer, Cotton Bowl Athletic Association. "We're so thankful that we can help provide families with the necessary food and help as many people as possible. With everything going on in our country, it's great to see so many groups come together to try to help our friends and neighbors in the North Texas community."
 
Cotton Bowl Council and staff members joined forces with volunteers from the Dallas Cowboys, AT&T Stadium, Arlington Fire and Police departments, Army and Air Force National Guard, AAA, The Gary Patterson Foundation, MW Logistics, The Baptist Ministers Union and American Airlines to bring Tarrant Area Food Bank's concept to reality.
 
"We're excited to be here today," said Gary Patterson, TCU football head coach. "It's good to be able to be around everybody and see so many people giving up their time and effort to make this work. From all the volunteers to everyone who has been involved with this, it's quite an operation."
 
Tarrant Area Food Bank (TAFB) was founded in 1982 by a group of Fort Worth residents concerned about hunger in their community. Now the primary source of donated food for hunger-relief charities and feeding programs in Tarrant and 12 surrounding counties, TAFB serves 1,000,000 meals each week.

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