Taieri residents showed their generosity during the annual Mosgiel Food Bank Drive on Monday.
The drive far exceeded last year’s haul.
Mosgiel Community Foodbank and food drive co-ordinator Michelle Kerr said there were 120 more boxes of food given this year compared with last year.
One box holds about 60 cans.
"It gets so exciting when you see the input from the community," Mrs Kerr said.
It was one thing for people to give a couple of cans, but many were putting out bags and bags of them, she said.
"It was fantastic."
While preparing for the event, she got out the same number of boxes that were used last year but kept needing to get more as the donations kept piling in.
It was a good problem to have, she said.
Mrs Kerr was unsure exactly why there were so many more items this year, but thought it might be due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
"I’m putting it down to Covid-19 teaching us that we have to look out for each other.
"It’s made people more aware that there’s a lot of vulnerable people out there."
It had been a relatively busy year for the foodbank, and more new people were accessing its services.
A lot of the usual clients had been more resourceful, seeing what meals they could make with items already in the cupboard, she said.
Mrs Kerr would spend the next two weeks organising the items.
"There’s no excuse for anyone to go hungry over Christmas in Mosgiel."
The food drive covered Mosgiel, Outram, Green Island, Abbotsford, Waldronville, Brighton, Allanton and Fairfield.
