T.R. Mahaffey wanted to find a place for his church camp youth to do some volunteer work. This week there are 47 youth from the Ohio Valley Association of United Baptists at the camp in Lavallette, West Virginia.

So he called around and found the Facing Hunger Food Bank in Huntington and a place for his young people to help out.

For a few hours Tuesday morning in the parking lot behind Harvest for the Hungry food pantry they bagged up melons, bananas, tomatoes, bread and frozen meat for the two-block-long lines of county residents waiting for the food bank’s mobile pantry to open up.

“We need to put Jesus first by forgetting our needs and showing Jesus to the community,” Mahaffey said.

In less than three hours 8,000 pounds of food, mainly donated by Wal-Mart, was distributed. The mobile pantry goes out four times a month to various counties in the Tri-State. Typically, between 130 to 150 show up, Chasten Toler, agency relations coordinator for the food bank, said.

“I figure this will top that,” Toler said.

Harvest pantry director Diane Porter, working that morning as a volunteer registering those wanting the food, said she was not surprised.

“We help 400 to 500 a month here,” she said.