Anne Taddicken with Gentiva along with Terry Collier, Aaron Dennis and Steve Hannah with the Emergency Assistance Center unload donated food.

A food drive organized by Gentiva Home Health and Hospice produced 1,663 pounds of food for the Chilton County Emergency Assistance Center.

The food was delivered to the center on Thursday, along with $201 in monetary donations.

Anne Taddicken with Gentiva said the total amount of food donated was a significant increase over last year’s 905 pounds.

Taddicken said local Associated Foods, Piggly Wiggly and Walmart stores allowed her to solicit customers for donations, contributing to the large amount of food collected.

“Being able to work there at those locations was huge,” Taddicken said.

Also, local banks competed to see which could produce the most food to donate. BB&T was the winner with about 120 pounds donated.

“Everybody pitched in to make this a success,” Taddicken said. “This was an such a rewarding experience to see everyone so willing to donate and help those less fortunate. It’s always nice to help our community.

“I would like to thank everyone that helped make this food drive a success.”

Paper bags were also taken to other local businesses for employees to fill during the month of August and then collected by Gentiva staff members.

Terry Collier, executive director for EAC, said the donation was a pleasant surprise.

“That will help a lot,” Collier said. “We’re appreciative of everything we get.”

The EAC’s primary food drive for the year will begin Oct. 15. The postal service also holds a drive each year in May.

Other than the drives, EAC purchases food from the Montgomery Food Bank to keep up its supply.

“Another thing about the food drives is you get a variety,” Collier said. “You don’t get that from the food bank. It’s all just green beans, peas—basic staple stuff.”

EAC distributed about 93,000 pounds of food in 2012, Collier said.