Christmas came early for one local food pantry.

Assistance and Resources Ministries (ARM) was the recipient of 10,000-plus pounds worth of food Friday thanks in part from a donation from the Johnson City VA.

Split between ARM and another service based out of Greeneville, the VA was able to raise accumulate over 17,000 pounds of food.

Amber McElyea has been involved with the VA’s drive over the past six years and indicated this year’s drive raised an additional 10,000 pounds compared to last year. Multiples departments of the VA have different competitions throughout the year, McElyea said, to benefit

Friday’s donation serves as vital key moving forward for ARM’s Christmas and Thanksgiving Day boxes, according to Director Robbie Fritts.

“This is a big step in the right direction,” Fritts said. “This donation will allow us to get an early start on our Thanksgiving and Christmas meal boxes.”

Fritts also thanked Tim Palmer for this contribution. Feeling the urge to get involved, Palmer used money and made a trip to Food City to purchase a sizeable amount of food to go along with the VA’s amount.

“We definitely want to thank Tim for his donation, too,” Fritts said. “Danny Ward with Food City was also great to work with and really helped with the organization of the donation.”

Assistance and Resources Ministries’s mission is to identify and secure the necessary human, financial and material resources required to efficiently and fairly provide basic emergency necessities to those in need throughout Carter County.

For more information on how to get involved, call (423) 542-0919. ARM is currently accepting donations to prepare for the upcoming holiday food boxes.