It had all the makings of a pep rally, but instead of cheering for a basketball game, people filled Eastern High School Gym to cheer for food, and for good reason.

"We're seeing more and more people coming to the pantry now looking for food. They've been laid off and have been laid off for a while now and their unemployment is running out," Dave Karr of the mid-Michigan Food Pantry says.

That's why the mayor issued a challenge to over thirty churches in the area, and those church's parishioners delivered in a big way.

"Our church alone collected $20,000," Volunteer, Shannon Ryan says.

And that donation alone would have filled up several trucks and come close to meeting the goal says organizers.

"The original goal for today was $40,000. That would feed two-thousand families in the month of January," Organizer, Phil Posthuma says.

Add donations from another 29 churches, "And we've almost tripled that amount," Posthuma says.

In fact there are so many boxes of food and people that coordinators of the event say that this could be the biggest food drop the city has ever seen.

"To my knowledge it's the only event of it's kind in Lansing," Posthuma says.

And that unbelievable and unprecedented showing from the community has Karr and all the folks at the food pantry saying one thing, thanks.