United Way of Lake County Caps Food Drive with Final Drive

Pallets with boxes of unsorted food lined the office next to .

Cans of vegetables, fruit and soup were stacked on tables next to boxes of pasta and breakfast cereal.

And as the day sped on, more and more food filled the room

The capped its food drive with an all-day collection, which they dubbed the Food Parade.

United Way staff and volunteers spent Tuesday collecting, weighing and sorting tens of thousands of pounds of donated food.

Nick Carrabine, a United Way of Lake County employee, said people had already donated 19,000 pounds of food and $30,000 even before the Food Parade, and that doesn't count many large donations like the 2,800 pounds of food the MC Sign Company brought Tuesday.

Carrabine said 112 food drives were held for Feed Lake County and 50 area businesses dropped off food Tuesday.

kicked off this year's campaign early,  of food. Marous Brothers, of Willoughby, organized a food drive that collected another 5,300 pounds.

During the next few days, staff and volunteers will sort all of the donated food. Then the United Way of Lake County will distribute it to area food banks next week.

Last year, more than 6,000 people used the food pantry system in Lake County and between 700 and 1,100 residents needed help on a weekly basis, according to the United Way of Lake County. These pantries also said they got between 10 and 20 new visitors each week.

Though the food drive has officially ended, people can still volunteer to help sort the donations by contacting Hope Swank at 440-639-1153 or HSwank@uwlc.org.