BRIGHTON, N.Y. — SUNY Empire State College set up a food drive this week to feed the area’s hungry.  

Tuesday wasn’t the greatest of days — for pretty much anything.

But when it comes to giving, there are no bad days...especially now.

“I was reading something from the CEO of Foodlink nationally who said that need is up like 35 to 40%, something like that. So it's really, really important,” said Annie Macpherson of Brighton.

Suny Empire State College hosted the food dropoff at its Brighton campus — collecting supplies for two Brighton food pantries.  

"The need is very, very great. Unfortunately, the pandemic I think has really stressed all areas of the community and there's a lot of people in need," said Timothy Cosgriff of SUNY Empire State College.

The pandemic changed the way this food drive was conducted. Instead of drop boxes, this year it was a contactless drive-thru.

"Normally we would do the food drives within the lobby to the for a week and collect and so forth, but with a pandemic, we needed to do something much more specific in terms of timing and the drop off to ensure that it's safe for everyone,” said Cosgriff.

Safety first — in a season of giving.

"We're just hoping to do our part to help everyone out,” Cosgriff said.