The Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania is thanking the community for its support.

The food bank held its 31st annual Bread Box Awards luncheon Thursday afternoon at its warehouse on Grimm Drive.

The Bread Box Awards recognize organizations, schools, businesses and individuals who have held fundraisers or food drives for the food bank.

Penelec was the overall winner, taking home the bread box award. Brian Pagani represented Penelec at the ceremony, and says the company was surprised to take home the overall winning award.

"We have a putt-putting contest that was an event we've done the past couple of years and the employees put together their homemade putt-putting courses that we do in the office," Pagani said.

Erie News Now was honored as well for the Erie News Now Food Drive. General Manager Pam Forsyth accepted the certificate for the station.

Last year, the effort collected more than 38,000 pounds of food and $41,000 from generous donations across the region. All of the donations stay local, and every dollar donated to the food bank can be converted into $17 worth of food.

Erie News Now once again will be teaming up with Second Harvest food bank Nov. 20, 2019 from 6 a.m. until 6:30 p.m..

You can learn more about the food drive on our food drive page.