Gore Valley Lions service and projects co-ordinator Kate Bratschie said it was lucky the food donation initiative was on a sunny day on Thursday.
"We were super lucky about the weather," she said.
"On a wet day, we get way less stuff."
Once all the Gore donations were collected, Mrs Bratschie said cars filled with contributions from the Mataura community rolled in and beefed up their stocks.
The Hato Hone St John cadets, Gore Cubs and Scouts and other community members had gone around Gore, tooting for food donations.
Locals were asked to give canned goods and other unopened edible and toiletry items to go to the Salvation Army and those in need.
The same was done in Edendale, Mataura and Wyndham.
Mataura Lions Club president Jenni Ritchie said she had not noticed how well Mataura had done in donations, as they were sent to Gore in off-duty ambulances.
On donating, she said the thing was, you never knew when you or your family were going to need help.
"We’ve got to give all we can and pay it forward," she said.
Mrs Bratschie said it was really humbling to see all the donations come in.
Plenty of organisation and advertising went into the event, she said.
She was new to her role, having joined this year, but said the other Gore Valley Lions ladies in the Salvation Army Hall, busy sorting the donations into categories, had it "down pat".
