HANSVILLE — While members of the Hansville Ladies Aid normally concentrate their efforts on taking care of the community cemetery, they are reaching out to help their neighbors down south this week.

The Ladies Aid group will be holding a food drive from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 13 at the Hansville Community Church with donations going to the Kingston Food Bank and ShareNet Food Bank.

“We share and share alike,” said Ladies Aid Events chairperson Barbara Lund. “They are both in Kingston and anyone that is needy in Hansville is welcome. They are both there for this territory.”

Lund said the group is also partnering up with the Driftwood Key community, which will be accepting donations for the food banks at its club house on Saturday as well.

Kingston Food Bank Director Vi Weaver said things are atypical this time of year. Normally, it’s slow and shelves aren’t filling up as fast as they do during the holidays. However, while people are still strong with donations, Weaver has a few requests.

“Jelly — desperately,” Weaver said. “Chili. Even now, I’m telling them, we can even use cereal.”

Canned fruits such as peaches and pears, mayonnaise and pork and beans are also welcome, she said.

“Usually, it’s very, very harsh for us,” Weaver explained about this time of year. “But everyone has been wonderful.”

Down the street at ShareNet, Director Kim Planck said things are a bit rough right now.

“It’s busy and getting low,” Planck said, noting she recently discovered that she has experienced an 18 percent increase in the number of clients during the past two months.

“(The food bank has) just been getting more and more clients over the past couple years,” she added, noting that ShareNet needs hygiene products such as toilet paper and toothpaste as well as eggs, margarine, jelly, peanut butter, tuna fish and oatmeal.

“It’s that time of year,” she said.