Vermilion Parish was in a giving mood this week, which was bad news for postmen.

Vermilion Parish residents were given brown paper bags a few days earlier and told that if they wanted to contribute non-perished food items, they can place the food in the brown bags and put them by their mail box. The postman would pick the food bag up and bring them to their central office in Abbeville.

Well, after a busy a day, when every grocery bag was collected, the total result would be 17,000 pounds of food.

The group that benefited from the collection is the St. Mary Magdalen Christian Service Center in Abbeville.

On Thursday, Deacon Randy E. Hyde and others spent the morning hauling two trailers and two pickup trucks of food back to the Christian Service Center.

By next week, the food will be on shelves in the center to feed the needy.

“This is amazing,” said Deacon Hyde as he unloaded the bags. “Vermilion Parish was in given spirit.”

The food, everything from grits, to pasta, to rice will first be unpacked and stocked on the shelves at the Christian Service Center. Then, after everything is sorted out, it will be placed on shelves for parish residents to select.

Hyde said with the assorted food donations, residents will have a wide variety of food to select from instead canned goods, rice or bread.