KAILUA, KONA, Hawai'i — A burglary and charitable gesture by a Big Island auto dealer have led to an outpouring of holiday season community support for an organization that feeds thousands of needy local residents every day.

The response has been so overwhelming that an extra truck has been brought in to handle the overflow of rice, Spam, tuna, macaroni and other food and household products.

It started sometime after the Thanksgiving weekend, when burglars broke into the Hawaii Island Food Bank's South Kona warehouse, making off with the organization's van, which it uses to distribute up to 7,000 pounds of food each day to Big Island needy.

"For a couple of days, it really sucked us down," said Carol Ignacio, executive director of the Food Bank that collects, stores and distributes more than 1.7 million pounds of food a year through 130 agencies across the Big Island. "Then when we got the call, it was so wonderful. We are just so grateful."

Gary Green, new general manager of McKenna Motorcars in Kailua, Kona, called and told Ignacio he'd get her another van that day. Green parked the white 1998 Chevy Venture at his dealership and his employees led the effort to fill it up.

He asked his 19 employees if they wanted to help collect donations at the car lot, but they said they wanted to do more. "So they chipped in $10, $50, $100 and 15 minutes later I bought the van," Green said.

"Pretty soon that collection jar was filled up. And then they said, 'Now let's fill up the van with food.' Now that's full up and we've had to back up a truck to keep it going," he said.