WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. — Volunteers gave out thousands of pounds of fresh food in Pasco County on Tuesday.

Food pickups like this one have been one of the frequent happenings during the pandemic around the country.

While hosting this latest one, Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore was more hopeful this time around.   

“There still are a lot of families in need. It’s good to see there’s not as many as there were last time, but there’s still families in need,” Moore said.

Last year, this Farm Share distribution saw 33,000 pounds of food gone in just a few hours.

This year, they gave out about 16,000 pounds with less families coming by.

Farm Share gathers surplus food from farmers around the state and organizes it for food drives.

With less folks coming by, volunteers called local churches to gather food for their pantries.

Earl Jeffs was excited to get the call that food was available for his pantry at Atonement Lutheran Church in Wesley Chapel.

“It’s a tremendous help because of the amount of a families we feed a week,” Jeffs said.

He says their weekly food pick up has doubled during the pandemic, to 300 families needing help a week.

Having their truck loaded up was a big help.

“Always in fear of not having enough food to feed the people that come. Who are in need,” said Roy Caffey, who also volunteers at thee church.

A sign that even though things are looking up, there’s still a lot of folks in need.