Elks Lodge food drive feeds 278 families

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI)-Cars were lined outside of the Elks Lodge in Idaho Falls early Saturday morning, as officer trustees at the lodge prepared to hand out food for those who needed it.

The food drive started at 9 a.m. and by noon over 275 people had received their food from the Elks Lodge.

"We've thoroughly enjoyed being able to give back to the community. I mean, that is really our purpose is to is to give back to to share what we've got," said Sean Cunningham at Elks Lodge. "The great thing about it is, is that we were we got so much help from community businesses who helped us to not just gather up the food and then get some of the boxes to to deliver it so that we would easily be able to deliver as much as we did in a short period of time.  Everybody has come together. It's been really inspiring."

The Elks Lodge was prepared to help everyone who needed it.

"We had, I would estimate, about a half a mile worth of cars waiting to pick up the goods. We did get a helpful hand from the police department today directing traffic into the into our parking lot so that we could distribute the food. We actually set ourselves up this the second one last year, we didn't have as many stations. And so we've set up multiple stations so that we could try to move people through as quickly as possible," Cunnigham said.

Cunnigham also shares they are already planning for their Thanksgiving food drive which will happen this fall.