HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The ABC13 Share Your Holidays food drive kicked off with some help from a famous mascot, plus generosity galore on Giving Tuesday.

Houston Texans mascot Toro surprised our partners at Ball High School in Galveston when he showed up as Secret Santa.

Instead of a sleigh, he hopped on a golf cart, but his wild ride actually started at a much higher altitude — in SkyEye — before he landed at the school.

You can watch that moment in the Facebook video below.

Our partners in Galveston said their site received $112,300 in sponsorship donations and collected 13,000 pounds in food and counting.

Another site, VFW Hall Post 3903 in Rosenberg, said it collected about $4,800 in sponsorship donations and collected about 38,000 pounds of food.

But big things were also happening across the city at the Houston Food Bank. That’s where it was revealed that, through a generous gift from Disney and the company’s partnership with Feeding America, the Houston Food Bank received a $15,000 donation.

At the food bank, $1 provides three meals.

“This will work out to 45,000 meals to help people in need in our community,” said Brian Greene, president and CEO of the Houston Food Bank. “The reality is hunger isn’t a holiday thing. It’s year-round. We really appreciate this event because this keeps the giving up and helps us sustain throughout the year, but we want people to come volunteer anytime throughout the year.”

The 2025 ABC13 Share Your Holidays Food Drive is back Dec. 2, 2025, Giving Tuesday, to raise money and collect donations for meals in southeast Texas.

Around one million people in southeast Texas are food insecure, meaning they lack consistent access to enough nutritious food to fuel a healthy lifestyle.

Before the government shutdown ended, some food banks said they’d seen up to an 1,800% surge in demand while SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits were halted.

While those benefits have been restored, the Houston Food Bank is one of those groups that quickly answered the call to make sure impacted families didn’t miss a meal.

Still, that doesn’t mean the need has ended.

That said, there are easy ways to help our neighbors through the ABC13 Share Your Holidays Drive if you’re in a position to do so.

Ways to Give

– Text “SYH2025” to 71777
– Scan the QR code seen on-air during Share Your Holidays stories and ABC13 Eyewitness News newscasts
– Visit the 2025 SYH fundraising page online

SEE ALSO: Why Galveston ISD mother says program and longtime leader ‘saved’ her and her children

What to know about Share Your Holidays

What started as an idea to put a food drive on TV for an hour has morphed into a Houston-area wide event going strong 45 years later as the ABC13 Share Your Holidays Food Drive.

Since 1980, the year the drive launched at ABC13, millions upon millions of cans of food have been collected through Share Your Holidays.

So, no matter what happens next, Share Your Holidays will continue with its same mission to serve.

Houston Oilers superstar Earl Campbell and teammate Tim Wilson were so moved by the occasion when it began, they arrived at the station with bags of groceries.

Both men spent the day with ABC13 personally thanking donors as they dropped off food, and what was supposed to last an hour turned into a daylong event.

That spirit of generosity in southeast Texas continues.

As the event celebrates 45 years, it’s again about foodraising and fundraising.

Remember, every $1 you give helps provide three meals for people in need.

All donations stay in our local communities, helping the Houston Food Bank serve our neighbors in 18 counties through their 1,600 community partners.

The foodraising, often the most fun part, happens through dropping off donations at any one of our eight drive-thru locations in Baytown, Galveston, Spring, Rosenberg, Katy, Sugar Land, Pearland, and the Houston Food Bank.

Most-needed Items

You can find a full list on the Houston Food Bank website.

Shelf-Stable Snacks:

Granola bars
Crackers
Trail mix
Nuts
Dried fruits

Canned goods (Low sodium, pull top preferred)

Meats
Fruits
Vegetables
Pastas
Beans
Soups

Drinks

Water
Sports drinks
Shelf-stable milk
Shelf-stable juice (low sugar)

What does food insecurity look like through Houston and in Texas?

An FY ’24 report from the food bank notes that 1 in 5 people in its service area is food insecure and that can mean having to make difficult choices such as skipping meals to pay bills or not going to medical appointments.

In addition, food insecurity can have many faces.

According to the report, 85% of food insecure homes have a working adult. Seventy-two percent of the people the food bank serves are homeowners.

An Aug. 18, 2025, report released by the Kinder Institute for Urban Research’s Center for Community and Public Health shows more than half of residents experience moderate or high food insecurity in much of northern Harris County, including 80% in the Greenspoint and IAH area.

Kinder’s report found that 39% of Houston and Harris County households are food insecure, significantly exceeding the national average of 14%. Other key findings in Kinder’s report were that household food insecurity is highest among Black (53%) and Hispanic (47%) residents, as well as households earning less than $35,000 annually (59%).

Hispanic women endure the largest gender gap in household food insecurity, the Kinder Institute said.

The situation is just as serious statewide.

Feeding Texas, a member of Feeding America, says that Texas has the highest food insecurity population in the nation, with 5.3 million Texans facing food insecurity.

Feeding Texas is a statewide network of food banks and the largest hunger-relief network in the Lone Star State.

Texas has the highest rate of senior food insecurity in the nation with 13.6% of Texas seniors at risk for hunger, while 22.2%, or 1 in 5 Texas children, experience hunger, according to Feeding Texas.

Rural Texans also often face higher rates of food insecurity due to the unique challenges of living remotely such as lack of transportation, low wages and underemployment.

Feeding Texas also reports that one in four Latinos are experiencing food insecurity. The overall food insecurity rate for Latinos in Texas is 24%.

With the need only continuing to grow, ABC13 hopes to exceed our 2013 record of 1,627,115 meals, with Share Your Holidays donations being accepted through New Year’s Eve.

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