Share Your Holidays Food Drive today

HOUSTON The idea is to fill these shelves here at the Houston Food Bank. They're seeing a record number of calls for help here into the food hotline. More than 5,900 families have already asked for help and there's still another full day of taking calls to go.

At the Houston Food Bank's Share Your Holidays food hotline, the volunteers are answering calls as fast as they can.

"We hang up a call and there's a call, back-to-back calls, so it's just phenomenal, the calls that we're getting," said volunteer Felicia Adams.

The need is clear and great. Organizers say call volume is up at least 40 percent over last year.

"We're hoping to receive enough donations to keep up with that. It is a huge increase over last year," said Brian Greene of the Houston Food Bank.

That need parallels the demand the Houston Food Bank has seen of late as more and more struggle to keep up with what the economy dishes out.

The Share Your Holidays Food Drive year after year attempts to fill that void. Last year, the event helped bring in nearly 434,000 pounds of non-perishable food, and $170,000 in cash contributions. That helped feed over 16,000 people in the greater Houston area.

"We actually will need more food than we'll actually collect in this drive," said Greene.

For every call that comes in, a box is prepared with staple food items, several days worth to help struggling families put something on the table.

The boxes will be distributed later this month through neighborhood food pantries. As the calls for help pour in, the plea for donations goes out. This volunteer says it all in just five little words.

"The need is just astronomical," said Adams.

If you want to donate food or make a financial contribution you can visit any of the Share Your Holidays drop off locations throughout the greater Houston area. The food drive runs from 6am to 6pm Friday and we have more details and locations posted here.