Mission Arlington Short On Thanksgiving Staples For Needy Families

ARLINGTON, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the cranberries. Or the pie. Or the stuffing.

A week before the holiday though, a major North Texas mission is still short on some of those items for its annual meal deliveries.

Mission Arlington has packed about 3,000 boxes so far ahead of next week, about half of what they expect to provide.

The packing has slowed down or stopped though as they determine if there will be traditional foods in the boxes or if they will be replaced with something else.

"When you think 'Well, we're out of stuffing' do you put a box of crackers in," asked Tillie Burgin, Executive Director for Mission Arlington. "We prefer to put Thanksgiving food in those Thanksgiving boxes."

As of Thursday the mission was still short on cans of carrots, broth, gravy, cranberry sauce, pie filling, sweet potatoes and stuffing.

They had been picking up large donations all day though from school groups and expected some of those items would be in the most recent contributions.

They believe they have enough turkeys to go along with all those boxes and Burgin said every year the community provides.

Even when they ran short of boxes this year, one phone call turned into a donation for enough boxes to last them for another decade.

Last year the organization delivered more than 6,000 boxes, as well as providing a few thousand prepared meals, both delivered to homes and served on site on Thanksgiving Day.