The Johnstown Northridge Food Pantry will distribute Thanksgiving food baskets to almost 100 local families on Saturday, Nov. 21.

Pantry director Ruth Krumm said last week that about 100 requests have been made at the pantry, and anyone needing assistance should call her at 740-924-2835.

"For anyone who would like to donate to the pantry, we need sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and salad dressing for the food baskets," she added.

Every November for almost 20 years, the pantry has provided families in need with all the fixings for a Thanksgiving meal.

Krumm said a gift certificate is given to families for meat and perishables, and food baskets also include a vegetable such as corn, carrots or green beans, potatoes, gravy mix and pie filling or a boxed cake mix.

"We provide them with a Thanksgiving dinner," she said.

The Johnstown Chapter 4324 Knights of Columbus collected a total of 18,507 items during the annual fall food drive in the Johnstown and Northridge schools. The collection was a substantial increase over the 14,379 items that were collected in 2008.

All items were donated to stock the Johnstown Northridge Food Pantry, which is housed at the Johnstown Independent Baptist Church, 7397 Johnstown-Alexandria Road.

A breakdown of the donations included the following: Johnstown-Monroe High, 4,480; Adams Middle School, 1,614; Oregon, 1,241; and Searfoss, 1,856 for a total of 9,191 from the district.

The Northridge district donated the following items: Northridge High School 1,365 items; Northridge Middle, 3,543; Northridge Intermediate, 1,950 and Northridge Primary, 2,459 for a total of 9,316 items from the Northridge district.

In addition to the food drive in the schools, about 20 Johnstown-Monroe cheerleaders collected food in Concord Crossing during their second annual "Cheer for Food" on Oct. 28.

"They brought in a truckload of food," Krumm said. "The truck was just loaded with food."

Despite all the recent donations, Krumm laughed when she said that not a single jar of jelly was donated.

"That was so unusual," she said. "There wasn't one jar of jelly but lots of peanut butter. We went out and bought jelly. We're pretty stocked up. We have more cereal than we've ever had."

Krumm said she appreciates all the donations that have helped fill the pantry's shelves.