The Youth Ministry Group at Saint Gregory Catholic Church Every year, the Youth Ministry Group, made up of just over a dozen 11 to 17-year-olds, helps coordinate a two-day food drive before each mass on the weekend before Thanksgiving. (Photo Kelsey Brimmer)

According to Tony George, the coordinator of this year's event, he has been involved in the food drive for eight or nine years. However, he says the food drive existed long before that - about 20 years now.

Every year, the Youth Ministry Group, made up of just over a dozen 11 to 17-year-olds, helps coordinate a two-day food drive before each mass on the weekend before Thanksgiving. The kids put together box after box of Thanksgiving food items - boxes of stuffing mix, pie crusts, canned vegetables - and then the food is brought over to about a dozen families in the Gray/ New Gloucester area that had signed up for assistance earlier in the year.

According to Kathy Demers, a religious educator for the youth group and a coordinator of the food drive for several years, this year the drive was especially successful because the group collected enough spare food for the annual Christmas food drive.

"Now we don't have to have the food drive in December because we ended up collecting so much," Demers said. "The drive was definitely successful."

Kathy Demers's daughter, Jenna Demers, also has been involved in the food drive for many years.

"I always like helping out at the food drive," Jenna said. "This year I helped unpack over a hundred bags of food for people."