LongviewThanksgiving

The Longview Thanksgiving Food Drive is Monday November 23, 2026 and we look forward to seeing all our volunteers and kind donors!

Please be aware that it will be a very busy day at the Longview Convention Complex. We will do our food donation and sorting day at Maude Cobb Convention Center. Meanwhile, Goudarzi and Young will do their turkey distribution from near the Exhibit Center.

Food Drive volunteers and donation drop offs should enter from Cotton Street onto Grand Blvd. Use the left lane of Grand Blvd, and follow the cones to Maude Cobb.

To avoid the heaviest traffic, please bring your Thanksgiving Food Drive donations between 11 am – 1 pm. on Monday, November 23. Likewise, volunteers are encouraged to help between 11 am – 4 pm.

Goudarzi and Young Turkey distribution on Monday will also enter from Cotton Street, using the right lane of Grand Blvd, and be directed toward the Exhibit Center.

Please note: the Longview Thanksgiving Food Drive Distribution Day will take place on Tuesday at Maude Cobb.

Each year in November, the Longview Thanksgiving Food Drive provides Thanksgiving food boxes to Longview families in need. This project is made possible thanks to the generous donations of people from throughout the community.

We will once again collect food and donations on the Monday before Thanksgiving, which this year is November 23, 2026 at the Maude Cobb Convention Center. Food will be distributed to approved recipients on Tuesday, November 24, 2026.

In 2025, we received over 2,200 applications for food boxes, which was an increase of 500 as compared to the 1,700 we received in 2024. We anticipate a similar demand this year, and we need your help to feed local needy families!

So, how can you help? You can donate food, money, or organize a food drive with your organization or neighbors. Many of the items that we need, such as perishable items (turkeys, hens, etc.) must be committed and paid for early, so we can have them on the day of distribution. This however takes cash, and we depend on your donations to make this happen. All the monetary donations go directly to these purchases to assist in feeding area families in need. Our website is LongviewThanksgiving.com or Facebook.com/LongviewThanksgiving.

In addition to monetary donations, we also rely on donations of canned food items and the help of many volunteers collecting donations from throughout the community. We hope that we can count on your support. Any amount is greatly appreciated.

We need your help to make this a great Thanksgiving. Please donate or volunteer.

The deadline to apply for a Thanksgiving Food box is the end of October.

Learn how to sign up to receive a Food Box.

Check us out on Facebook at Facebook.com/LongviewThanksgiving. Let us know you are coming to the event, share with friends, and let us know you are supporting the effort!

For many years, Brookshire’s and Super 1 Foods have been great partners with the Longview Thanksgiving Food Drive. They help with logistics, acquire food at great prices, volunteer, advertise, and so much more.  They even make it easy for you to donate to the Food Drive as you are checking out your groceries. Even if it isn’t your normal grocery stop, we hope you will join us in saying thanks to Brookshire’s and Super 1 Foods for their commitment to helping the local community. 

It’s an annual tradition in Longview, Texas. On the Monday before Thanksgiving, volunteers flood the Maude Cobb Convention and Activity Complex with food, food, and more food. The volunteers come from all walks of life. Schools, churches, businesses, retirees, everyone comes together to help sort through the thousands of pounds of food items. Then, on Tuesday before Thanksgiving, pre-approved families arrive to receive their Thanksgiving food gift.

It sounds so simple. Someone gives food. Someone gets food. Everyone gives thanks.

In a way, it really is that simple. But in reality, it takes a lot of planning and coordinating to acquire and distribute enough food for 1,000 needy families. Not to mention the pre-approval process to make sure that the food actually goes to people who need it. After thirty years of practice though, the process has become poetry in motion. Well, maybe the food sorting day isn’t quite poetry, perhaps choreographed chaos. But at the end of the day, the food is beautifully sorted and ready for the families by the next day.

Making it all work are volunteers. The Longview Thanksgiving Food Drive has no paid staff. We coordinate with existing local nonprofits to assist with the application process. The rest of the work is done by trusty volunteers that faithfully hold food drives and gather food from their neighbors. It really is a community process.

If you’ve never participated in the Food Drive, we invite you to get involved. If not this year, then maybe next year, or the year after that. We don’t think the need is going away anytime soon, so we plan to stick around for a while. 

Come get involved and give thanks with us. If you would like to volunteer or donate food, meet us at Maude Cobb Convention and Activity Complex, 100 Grand Blvd., on the Monday before Thanksgiving.