Hundreds of people — each giving a little — have helped set a record to feed hungry area families through the Drive-Thru Holiday Food Drive to benefit the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania.

A record 8,016 pounds of food, $7,442.52 in donations and 81 turkeys were collected at The Meadville Tribune on Wednesday. The previous collection records were 7,211 pounds of food, $5,587 in donations and 49 turkeys.

Chuck Fleek said he gave because he has known the humility of what it’s like to be on the receiving end of aid.

“I have a job now — I just recently got it — and a lot of people don’t,” said Fleek of Meadville, who stopped by to donate $20. “I wanted to try and help out. It’s nice that people are getting together to help out in times like this.”

This was the fourth year in a row the Tribune joined forces with media partners WICU-TV of Erie and WMVL-FM Cool 101.7 for the drive to benefit Second Harvest, which distributes to food pantries across the region, including eight in Crawford County.

All of the non-perishable food collected remains in the area where it’s collected, said Rita Orinko of Second Harvest.

“It’s just gratifying to see the Meadville community come together to help those in need,” said Orinko.

Valerie Nye of Meadville offered $20 and a box of food because she had read about the plight of local

food banks in a recent Tribune news story.

“I wanted to do what I could,” she said. “I’m going to have a nice Thanksgiving and I want everybody to.”

Dodie Gagen, Tribune advertising representative who coordinated Wednesday’s local collection, was overwhelmed by the response of the community.

“It’s a wonderful, wonderful day,” said Gagen. “I never expected we’d do this well.”

The record numbers show the true strength of the community, said Sharon Sorg, Tribune publisher.

“When there are people in need in Crawford County, we all dig deep and do whatever it takes,” said Sorg. “ ‘Thank You’ is simply not enough for all those who donated, the volunteers who spent countless hours with us — Cool 101.7, Valesky’s, Allegh-eny College, Vocelli Pizza, Meadville Farm and Garden and The Meadville Tribune staff who work very hard to make this event successful.”

There were numerous volunteers throughout the day including Homeless Outreach, some 90 student volunteers from Allegheny College and six from the AmeriCorps VISTA project of northwest Pennsylvania.