EPHRATA - The Ephrata Food Bank gave away close to 176 tons of food to area families over the last fiscal year. That breaks down to about 353,988 pounds of food handed out to some 21,000 clients, food bank manager Mike Donovan said. But the food bank wouldn't have been able to make that big of a difference last year if it weren't for community support, he said.

"We live in a very, very giving community," Donovan said. "We're very fortunate here."

He said community support is primarily seen in two ways- donations from businesses and individuals and hours logged by volunteers.

The food bank gets some of its food and funding from federal and state programs and from food distribution groups like Northwest Harvest. The rest is supplemented by local donations, Donovan explained.

"People in the community like to do food drives for us," he said. "Like the (Ephrata High School) Key Club just had a Halloween food drive and generated 1,800 pounds of food."

He said people also donate money to the food bank, which is also a helpful donation.

"We spend about $2,000 to $3,000 a month on food," Donovan said. "We buy some meat, a lot of rice and beans and things like that."

Ephrata businesses have been instrumental in making sure the food bank has enough money to purchase food items, he said.

AmericanWest Bank recently donated $3,000 to the food bank, for example, Donovan said.

"It will definitely go a long way, especially this time of year" he said.

While food and cash donations take care of the first step of bringing food in, the food bank's volunteers take care of the second step of getting that food out.

"Everyone here is a volunteer," he said. "We'll have hundreds of volunteers help us in a year's time."

Donovan said about eight area churches take turns providing volunteers each month. There is also a small group of community members who come in regularly to help out, he said.

Volunteers mainly put together food boxes for the food bank's clients. Families can come in once a week to get a box of food- the size of which depends on the size of the family.

Some volunteers also pick up food donations from around the area, while others deliver food to Ephrata schools for the national Backpack Program, he said.

While volunteers put in a lot of time throughout the year, they definitely do a lot during the holidays.

The food bank is gearing up to put together their annual Christmas baskets.

"We don't do Thanksgiving baskets, we do Christmas baskets," he said. "We put everything for a turkey meal in the basket and new toys for kids."

Students at Ephrata High School raise money and purchase toys for the baskets each year, said Donovan.

"We'll give out around 260 baskets, and that's a lot for this community," he said.