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When Capt. David Gillespie's second daughter was born, his co-worker at the Fourth District Montgomery County Police station, Capt. Joseph Mattingly, sent the family a peach tree to celebrate.

Six years later, the tree has stretched its roots deep into the earth and sprouts juicy peaches every spring.

For Gillespie, the tree is more than a gift of food. It's a symbol of his old friend, who died in a single-car crash in 2003. Both keep giving—the tree in the form of its peaches and Mattingly in the form of the Mid-County United Ministries Capt. Joseph A. Mattingly Food Pantry, which was formed shortly after he died.

"The food bank is kind of like that tree," Gillespie said. "It's still bearing fruit long after he's gone."

The work Mattingly championed will likely always bear fruit for the community, Gillespie said. Mattingly dedicated himself to helping the underserved, and he was working to set up a food pantry for the Fourth District area when he died.

Now the food pantry and annual march and food drive are dedicated in his memory. In its fifth year this Thanksgiving, local congregations, residents and police officers gathered at the First Baptist Church in Wheaton on Sunday and marched up Veirs Mill Road to the Mid-County Services Center building, where they dropped off 67 bags of food for the needy.

Mattingly's wife and children lead the procession every season. This year several new congregations joined the march for a grand total of 75 marchers, said Diane Schroeder, the executive director of the Mid-County United Ministries, a coalition of area congregations that runs the food bank. Last year there were 40 marchers and 56 bags of food, so the program continues to grow, Schroeder said.

The march reminds people what Mattingly knew to be true: that many people go hungry in Montgomery County, Schroeder said.

"This was something that he saw as a real need in this community," she said.

The need is even greater now than Mattingly could have predicted as unemployment numbers relentlessly rise and more people are forced to take low-wage jobs, Schroeder said.

And with supplies diminishing, it's getting harder for the ministry to keep its promise that every family gets two bags of food, she said.

"As fast as we're putting it up on the shelves, it's going out," she said. Already at noon the day after the march, 20 bags of food had flown out the door, she said.

"We're just going up and up [in need]. The demand is there," she said.

Because the Mid-County United Ministries' food pantry was renamed after Mattingly, it's become an iconic part of the ministry's holiday giving. The pantry now has a storage unit in Kensington donated by Acorn Storage that's stocked with non-perishables, she said.

And the ministry is always on the look-out for new congregations. So far about 20 support the pantry, but more are needed, she and Gillespie said.

"It's surviving, but it's not flourishing," Gillespie said.

He said he hopes more people can understand what was obvious to Mattingly: Anyone can suddenly be hungry, even in this affluent county.

"You just don't realize how easily it could be you who actually needs that food," he said.

The Mid-County United Ministries Capt. Joseph A. Mattingly Food Pantry is located on the second floor of the Mid-County Regional Services Center at 2424 Reedie Drive in Wheaton. Donations of non-perishable food are always welcome; drop them off from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday and Wednesday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday. Families in need of food are welcome to stop by between those times as well.