The best-laid plans can meet a snag, especially when there are families in need. That is what the volunteers at the Chesapeake Community Center discovered last week at their annual food giveaway.

For weeks schools, churches and other organizations collected non-perishable food items to put in food baskets for 600 families for Christmas. This past Wednesday volunteers put in 12-hour days giving away the baskets and toys for families with young children.

“Other families came in and we ran out of food baskets,” Father Charles Moran of St. Ann Church in Chesapeake, said. “We prepared for 600 but we went over 600.”

St. Ann’s is among the churches that provide food to the pantry at the center.

Besides the baskets with canned and boxed food, frozen turkeys and hams were also given out.

“We did run out of hams and turkeys but we had meats in the freezer that were given away (Thursday),” Ruth Damron, director of the center, said.

Workers saw no demographic as far as need at the pantry.

“It just varied from birth to 90-year-old,” Damron said.

Pallets of potatoes, watermelon and fresh pineapple were brought up from Louisa, Ky., from the Appalachian Mission Center of Father Ralph Beiting.

“We gave out a minimum of 2,000 pounds of potatoes (Wednesday),” Moran said.

Remaining pallets were offered to local food banks. Toys were provided for youngsters from the local Toys for Tots campaign as well as from donations.

“A person donated $1,000 worth of toys,” Moran said. “Other parishes came through with Giving Trees and toys and things like soap and toothpaste. The need has grown. Eight years ago we were preparing for 450. This year we went to 600 and we have given out well over 600 this year.”