Boxes distributed through the food pantry at Black Diamond Community Center will be fuller thanks to donations from Cenex.

Donations were collected at Cenex gas stations in Black Diamond and Auburn through its second annual Harvest for Hunger campaign which ran March 1-16. Doug Ernst, a full-time volunteer who manages the food pantry, said the donation of 358 pounds of food and $2,262.81 will go far.

“It means we can put more food in the boxes,” Ernst said. “Sometimes there’s not a lot of food and other times the boxes are full.”

Boxes are filled with non-perishable stables such as canned vegetables, pasta and instant potatoes, the kinds of items that keep people from starving said Cheryl Hanson, executive director of the community center. Ryan Strong, a certified energy specialist for Cenex, explained that parent company CHS is a large agriculture business and produces a lot of grain so it places significant emphasis on helping out those who might otherwise go without food.

“This year they doubled the expectations,” Strong said. “They raised enough (food and cash donations) for 2.4 million meals in this region.”

According to a letter Strong provided, the CHS Auburn Group collected $3,583.11 for Food Lifeline which the company partnered with in Harvest for Hunger, with $4,720.23 in matching contributions along with 685 pounds of food which were distributed to the Auburn Food Bank, Black Diamond Community Center, among several others in the region.

Strong, along with Black Diamond Cenex assistant manager Julie Burlison and manager Betty Scheetz, presented Hanson a check on Monday.

“Today we are presenting you with two checks of CHS matching contributions, $1,262.58 from CHS County Operations match plus $1 for every five pounds of food,” the letter said. “And an additional $1,000 from CHS Auburn, rewarding the Black Diamond community for their extraordinary efforts which resulted in more donations collected than any of our six participating locations.”

Hanson said she couldn’t be more pleased with the ongoing partnership with Cenex.