Six months into the coronavirus pandemic, the People's Food Pantry in Great Barrington is serving twice as many people as it was this time last year.

"We're still seeing an increased demand; we're still seeing young families; we're still seeing new people that we've never seen before," said Director of Operations Anne Hutchinson.

Hutchinson says while their food supply is fairly stable now, they were really struggling to meet the high demand in April and May.

"Especially early on, it was hard to get food, really hard, because the stores had none, and we've always purchased food locally, like at Big Y, and their shelves were bare. So a lot of different kinds of people stepped up," Hutchinson said.

The pantry receives weekly donations from restaurants, community organizations, and local residents.

Manager Jenny Schwartz says they take care to make sure everything they get is safe to distribute.

"Food that is donated, we sort of store it away for a couple of days, just to have it sanitized so it's fine, just to make sure there's nothing to worry about that might be on the food," Schwartz said.

Hutchinson says while the coming winter will provide several challenges, like trying to operate a socially distanced pantry indoors, she's optimistic the donations will keep on coming.

"You can never predict going forward, but we have no reason to believe that people will not continue to be generous and help us to meet the needs. We put out things as we need them on Facebook and our web page, and those things show up," Hutchinson said.

Donations for the pantry can be dropped off at Saint James Place in Great Barrington every Monday and Thursday from 8-9 a.m.