“I wish you could’ve seen the food when it was all over the floor,” said Alecia Gregg, executive director for the Suffolk Shelter for the Homeless Tuesday afternoon.

She was referring to the hundreds of pounds of canned and non-perishable food donated to the shelter thanks to a food drive organized by David Taylor.

Taylor, program coordinator for the Community Corrections Program, asked the people he knows and works with, people on probation and parole, to donate food, and donate they did.

“It’s people on probation and in my office giving the food,” said Taylor, “many on probation come to this shelter, or have been here in the past, and this was a way to help.

They felt that they have been given something, so they can now give something back.”

In only the last two weeks, Taylor said, flyers and word of mouth got the drive going, and he made the delivery to the shelter on Tuesday.

“We didn’t have time to count it,” Taylor said.

By about 3 p.m. the food was fully organized in the shelter’s kitchen, filling up the pantry, shelves and cabinets.

Gregg said in the past few weeks, the shelter has been able to provide food baskets to those that use the shelter.

“Now we will get to give more than we were normally giving because of the excess, this is perfect timing,” Gregg said.

“There is a huge amount of support in the community, and the support is growing too.

We have a lot of different groups helping us.” Gregg said.

Given the outpouring of donations in such a short time, Taylor said, “We plan on doing it again for Christmas and getting just as much or even more next time around.”