East Lyme — After contract negotiations broke down in 1988, around 10,000 employees at Electric Boat’s shipyard in Groton went on strike.

That strike and the employees’ immediate need “to provide food for their families” sparked the establishment of the Gemma E. Moran United Way/Labor Food Center, said Ellen Mail, community engagement specialist at the center.

Today’s operation, in a large New London warehouse, serves 21,000 individuals monthly through its member agencies and provides more than 2 million meals to New London County residents annually.

On Saturday, the Fountain Timmons Team of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services held its seventh annual food drive at Tri-Town Food Plaza in East Lyme to benefit the center.

Leslie Timmons, one of the drive’s main organizers, said she and her business partner, Deborah Fountain, decided to start the drive with Tri-Town. They saw the food center in New London “as the mother ship for all of the pantries and soup kitchens locally, about 90 some odd,” she said. “So we decided that that was the way to go.”

The drive is one of the food center’s bigger fundraising events of the year. This year’s goal was set at 7,500 pounds of donated food, with a monetary donations goal of $25,000. By 2 p.m., 5,692 pounds of food had been donated, and the goal of 7,500 pounds was reached by 5 p.m. A count of monetary donations was not immediately available but Timmons said, “People have been really generous today. Cash donations are really up, and that is something that we really need. People are dropping twenties when in the past it would be just dollars, so it’s really nice.”

Because of the food center’s partnership with Connecticut Food Bank that ties the center to the greater Feeding America network, Mail said, “we’re able to really stretch a dollar donation. One dollar provides 10 meals.”

One of the youngest helpers at the drive was Ryan Novick, 8, of East Lyme, who helped to load a truck with food donations. On Saturday, he saw “lots of cans, some cereals, greens, lots of peanut butter,” all going “to people that need food.” It was Novick’s third year helping out at the drive.

Bea Reynolds, a Groton resident, came to grocery shop at Tri-Town on Saturday so that she could donate to the food drive. Reynolds bought two bags’ worth of groceries for herself, and donated about five bags to the drive. She said she bought every food item on the list of things the center needed.

“I’ve always looked for drop-off places for food banks at this time of year, and I just love going in and buying all the stuff and then bringing it out,” she said.

Reynolds isn’t alone. Mail said the food center receives a lot of donations this time of year.

“The need for us exists year round but we are able, through our community donors, to keep the food bank pretty well supplied, but everything helps,” she said. “We would never say that we have everything that we need.”

Many of the food donations will go to working individuals, a large portion of the population that the food center serves.

“They have jobs, but between the high cost of living in southeastern Connecticut and transportation and childcare and utility bills, food is sometimes the piece that gets left out of the puzzle, so Gemma knows that,” Mail said.

Moran, who celebrated her 90th birthday in March, is the center’s founder, and the face of the organization. Mail said Moran was unable to make it to the food drive on Saturday.

“She’s definitely the voice for individuals who may not otherwise have the ability to share their struggle with hunger and food insecurity. She’s their advocate,” Mail said. “She recognizes that hunger is something that impacts all of us.”

j.bergman@theday.com

Twitter: JuliaSBergman