You hear about the Mission of Hope most often during the holidays or when it's back to school time, but the charity dedicated to helping Appalachian families in need works all year round.
Friday was the group's first clothing and food giveaway of the year at the Boys and Girls Club of the Cumberland Plateau in Oneida.
"What we do is we find a school in a rural county where there's really a need and what we do is we just go and set up in a gymnasium and we generally take in anywhere from 30 to 40,000 dollars worth of food and it's all given away for free and there's no restrictions. Anyone can come and get this food," said Robin Rolland of Cornerstone Church of God in Farragut.
The Mission of Hope teams up with local organizations to make the event possible.
"We can come up, have a giveaway, we can give out food, we can give out any kind of thing we get. Plus, we can share the gospel," said Emmett Thompson, Executive Director of Mission of Hope. "We see some people in desperate need and we feel very privileged that we can even do this."
For many of the the families, it's a day that will make a difference in their lives.
"We get calls almost on a daily basis from people that are needing food, clothing, furniture," said Kathy West, Appalachian Life Quality Inititative
Today, their calls for help were answered, thanks to the generosity of their neighbors who were just as happy to give, as others were to receive.
"We just use it as an opportunity to bless people," said West.
Mission of Hope plans to host four more food and clothing giveaways this year. All giveaways benefit communities in the Appalachian region. You can get more information about the Mission of Hope here.