TEXARKANA, Texas - A simple meal for some on Thursday will put food on the table for others this holiday season.
The 21st annual Bramlett Beans and Cornbread lunch raised funds and food donations to help families in need enjoy the holidays. The event brought in hundreds of dollars and dozens of bags of food for the benefit of the Christmas Basket program organized by Texarkana Water Utilities staff and both Texarkanas' city employees.
For $5 or a donation of six food items, attendees at the Texas-side's Southwest Community Center ate beans provided by Big Jake's Bar-B-Que, cornbread made by Texarkana, Texas, Independent School District food services staff and coffee and dessert from Starbucks.
Texas High School art students were also there selling handmade ceramic bowls in a silent auction to benefit the Empty Bowls Project, a charitable effort to fight hunger.
The event's founder and namesake, former Texarkana, Texas, Mayor James Bramlett, was on hand to help serve food. City Parks and Recreation Department staff spent the past week decorating the Southwest Center for Christmas and the morning setting up tables in the center's gym. Prepared elsewhere, the food was delivered beginning about 10 a.m. The doors opened at 11 a.m.
Proceeds from the lunch will help pay for at least 100 food "baskets" - actually boxes decorated with gift-wrapping - filled with food for families in need. Local schools and city employees nominate recipients each year.
Baskets contain donated food and other nonperishable food items, hams, produce, bread, candy canes and more. Organizers shop year-round to take advantage of sale prices for basket items.
The Christmas Basket program began in 1991 with baskets given to five TWU employees. Former TWU Human Resources Director Paula Jeans began it in honor of her father, who had died suddenly on the day before Thanksgiving the previous year.