In the past seven months, FoodNet gained nearly 6,000 new clients.

That’s the largest number of new clients it has seen in several years and is now in need of help from the community.

One local Key Club helped out.

The Acadiana Homeschool Key Club is made up of homeschooled students from grades 8th to 12th.

For the past five years, the club has held their Mardi Gras Food Drive, but this year it really came during a time of need at the food bank.

“It was a big jump in 2015. We’re continuing to serve those individuals on a monthly basis. We are always in need of food, but the food is coming in and it’s going to be coming out as soon as it comes in,” Julie Lafleur, FoodNet’s Executive Director, told KLFY’s Jazmin Thibodeaux.

Last year the food bank distributed more food than what was received.

“We distributed in 2015, 299,000 pounds of food. We brought in a little bit less than that. We brought in about 249,000 pounds of food,” Lafleur explained.

The morning after Mardi Gras, the Key Club brought in 6,700 pounds of food; almost doubling last year’s donation.

“We filled up an entire U-Haul with groceries and unloaded all of those this morning,” said Jade Landry, an Advisor of the Acadiana Homeschool Key Club.

Key Club President Camryn Landry said they chose this time of the year for the drive since this is this when pantries start running low.

“This is kind of the breaking point of after this if we don’t give then they kind of start slacking off and have to start rationing,” he said.

There are over 40 kids in the Key Club. All of the students go door to door the Monday before Mardi Gras to gather donations.

“They would be like oh sure, give me a minute, I’ll go get something out of the pantry and then so I think each house gave about one pound of food,” Blake Landry, Vice President of the Acadiana Homeschool Key Club, told KLFY.

Lafleur said they never receive too much food and all donations are welcome.

To donate call (337) 232-3663 or visit http://www.foodnetacadiana.org.