Woody Main started crying when asked how he felt about a drive-up food distribution event held Tuesday afternoon at the Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frazer.

The 50-year-old from Elizabeth was at the distribution to pick up food for his two sister-in-laws. He goes to food banks for them because one had a stroke and can’t drive very far. The other doesn’t have a car.

“I don’t think anybody ever imagined that it’d come down to this,” Main said. “A lot of people need help. Working people, people who lost their jobs, people looking for jobs. … I lost my job.”

The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank and Allegheny Valley Association of Churches have been holding monthly drive-up food distribution events at the Mills mall since July.

The food bank said Tuesday’s event would be able to serve up to 600 families.

Each family gets three boxes of food: one containing fresh fruits and vegetables, one containing frozen foods and one containing nonperishable items.

“I think it’s very nice,” Main said. “A lot of people need it.”

While Tuesday’s distribution brought in roughly the same number of participants as those held in months past, organizers say more people tend to gravitate toward such resources during the holiday season. Reservations were full by 5 p.m. Monday.

About 600 families received food at the November distribution, an increase from previous months.

Roughly 500 families received food in July and August, and about 430 received food in September and October.

“You can see how it’s increased into November, so we’re expecting it to be just as much in December,” said Beth Kendra, office and emergency assistance coordinator for the church association. “I would think we’re expecting 600 families tonight, if not more.”

The church association works with the food bank on its monthly Produce to People food distribution, which hasn’t been happening because of covid-19. They’re doing the drive-up food distributions in place of Produce to People.

Kendra said she approached Karen Snair, the association’s executive director, and Jayne Bakos, the association’s food bank coordinator, about doing drive-up food distributions.

Kendra said the Mills mall is a good place to hold the food distributions because everyone in the Alle-Kiski Valley knows where it is.

“They said sure, that they would try. See how it goes one month, and we’ll go from there,” Kendra said. “And it just really did well.”

The food bank holds drive-up food distribution events in other areas of Western Pennsylvania.

Food bank spokeswoman Melissa Murray said reservations for such distributions were between 150% and 200% higher in November than in October. That could be because the holidays are one of the food banks’ busiest times of the year, as well as the fact people are out of work or underemployed because of the covid pandemic.

“While we’re not necessarily seeing today, for example, the shutdown kind of atmosphere that we were in the spring, I think people are still concerned,” Murray said. “And there are definitely still lots of people who are out of work and not able to find ways to make ends meet.”

Jennifer Miller, chief executive officer of the Westmoreland County Food Bank, said demand for both monthly and emergency food assistance went up this year during the pandemic and the economic hardship it caused for many residents.

Reaching a monthly high of about 9,500 households served, “it has settled down since spring,” she said.

The food bank, through its network of 44 pantries, serves between 7,000 and 8,000 households, according to the latest available monthly total, which doesn’t include the Thanksgiving holiday.

Still, Miller said, need for food is likely to increase again with the arrival of the holiday season and a surge of covid-19 cases in the county.

Kendra usually directs traffic at the drive-up food distributions. She said people who come to receive food are very thankful.

“We are so happy that we’re able to help as many people as we do,” Kendra said.

One of those thankful people was Ruth Ikenberg, 84, of Harrison. She said the drive-up food distribution events help a lot of people in need, including her.

“I’m on a fixed income, and that doesn’t go very far when you have to pay money for all your bills and what have you,” Ikenberg said. “This does help a lot.”

Jeff Himler contributed to this report.

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