Approximately 220 volunteers helped fill four CyRide buses with food for the hungry this weekend.

Stuff The Bus, an annual community food drive, raised almost $2,500 in cash donations in addition to food and other items for Mid-Iowa Community Action food pantry on Friday and Saturday.

The last couple of months, MICA has been short on food donations, so Stuff The Bus has been helpful.

“Getting all of this food is great because we’ve been having to go out and buy food,” said Lindsay Cook, food pantry assistant with MICA.

MICA serves Story County residents who are in need of food.

It helps feed around 200 families a month, and each family can only get food once every three months, Cook said.

“This is probably our biggest food drive,” Cook said.

There were four locations to donate this year: Fareway, 619 Burnett Ave.; Hy-Vee, 3800 W. Lincoln Way; Hy-Vee, 640 Lincoln Way; and Wal-Mart/Cub Foods, 3121 Grand Ave.

“I was surprised with how much food there was,” Cook said.

Not only did the food drive collect food, there were also toiletries and baby items donated.

Sandra Prusina, social chairwoman for Alpha Pi Mu and senior in industrial engineering, volunteered at the event with other members from her organization.

At Fareway, the volunteers were busy the whole time and filled several carts with food, she said.

“People were willing to donate, which was nice,” she said.

Along with donating at Stuff The Bus, community members can drop off any food or monetary donations at MICA, 126 S. Kellogg Ave. #1.

“If there is a club or organization, they can organize a food drive,” Cook said.

Some of the organizations that contributed to Stuff The Bus included the Iowa State Daily, Ames Tribune, CyRide, KASI/KCCQ, Homecoming Central, Alpha Copies and A & R Marketing.