Imagine 40 full-size rental box trucks parked next to each other.

Now, fill each of them with food.

That’s the illustration Carbon County Commissioner Rocky Ahner used Thursday during the commissioners’ meeting to show just how much food was distributed to Carbon County families in need in 2020.

On Thursday, Ahner provided a report on the increase in food distribution over the past 12 months as a result of the pandemic.

In 2019, the nine Shepherd House pantries and five other local pantries distributed 510,651 pounds of food.

That number jumped to 591,294 pounds in 2020, and Ahner believes that total is probably a little light since can drives and other local fundraisers to help pantries are not included in the total pounds that came into the pantry.

Breaking it down further, Ahner said in January 2020, the Shepherd House pantries provided food for 836 households, or 2,229 people.

By December, that number jumped to 1,082 households, or 2,841 people.

“All of this was done with 101 volunteers,” he said. “These volunteers work in rain, snow and darkness of night, yet they bring sunshine to many faces.

“Carbon County is very fortunate to have volunteers (like this). We can’t thank them enough.”

Ahner has made it his mission to help with food distribution since the pandemic started, spearheading a countywide distribution with the help of Second Harvest in May of last year.

The distribution, which took place in the five school districts, gave out nearly 2,000 emergency food boxes to families in need.