Local residents were in the giving spirit Friday morning, donating food to fill the shelves at the Inn of the Good Shepherd's food bank.
Blackburn Media's COOL 106.3 held its annual food drive at The Home Depot, collecting donations of non-perishable food items and money for the Inn. In the past, the event has collected over 10,000 pounds of food.
Executive Director Myles Vanni said on average over 1,800 people a month access the food bank, even more around the holidays.
"We're seeing families we've never seen before," said Vanni."It's that issue of lost jobs, they haven't been getting hours, businesses being closed more than open so those families, now when it's such a special time, are left with being unable to provide a Christmas. So the response today has been fantastic and helping to provide food for folks."
He said not only has the demand for food and rent assistance spiked, but so has the need for shelter.
"Pre-COVID we had 35 people in our shelter program at the Haven or the Lodge, and last night we had 154 people, that's a huge number," he said. "We're very happy it's down, in terms of through the summer and early fall when we had 220 people in shelter. We've managed to get a bunch of people housed."
Donations can be dropped off all weekend at Home Depot on Quinn Drive.
