MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Close to 700 cans and boxes of food were collected by Grace Network at its annual food drive Monday at Martinsville Speedway.
An official count of all of the items hasn't been made yet.
On Wednesday, Grace Network collected the food.
The organization's executive director, Tracy Hinchcliff, said the food drive exceeded her expectations.
"We collected around 400 cans from last year's event, so this year I was expecting somewhere in that neighborhood. But this year, our community really came through," Hinchliff said.
According to Hinchcliff, the Martinsville Aldi typically supplies the food bank with a couple hundred pounds of food a week.
But Aldi has been closed for about three weeks for renovations, meaning Grace Network has lost around 1,000 pounds of food.
That's a critical loss this time of year, as the food bank often sees an increased demand for food with kids being out of school for the summer.
"Fortunately, (Aldi is) going to be opening very soon. I think within the next couple of weeks," said Hinchcliff.
With an average of 300 people receiving food each month and each person receiving a two and a half week supply of food, the roughly 700 items collected Monday are only expected to last three to four weeks.
That's why Martinsville Speedway is glad to host the food drive and help out in any way it can.
"Throughout the year, Martinsville Speedway tries to give back and really be a community partner more than just race weekends. So we work with the Grace Network on various things," said Brooks Taylor, the speedway's communication director.
For anyone wishing to donate food to Grace Network, canned items, especially fruit, vegetables and meat, are preferred.