Loudon County donates 16K pounds of food to Good Samaritan pantry

wbir.com-Thousands of pounds of food poured into the Good Samaritan food pantry in Loudon County.

After tallying the donations, the pantry collected 16,000 pounds and 20,000 items of food, and it expects more in the coming days.

Last year, the pantry collected a total of 7,500 pounds of food. This year's total more than doubles last year's donations.

Good Samaritan pantry manager Eddy Shubert said the community's generosity is incalculable.

"We give out approximately 5,000 pounds every week. So that's, what, five percent of what we'll be taking in this year, so it's a big impact," said Shubert.

The food collected will go to feed 300 families for three weeks. Shubert said this weekend's drive is the second largest of the year.