SCHOFIELD -- Two Schofield pizza restaurant servers donated $800 to a local food pantry Oct. 28 after pledging to contribute half the tip money they collected during a two-week span.

Terry Blumberg and Ashley Marschall, who wait tables at Mickey's Billiards and Pizzeria, also donated food and clothing they gathered between Oct. 9 and Oct. 23. The $800 is twice the amount Blumberg collected last year for The Neighbors' Place, a Wausau nonprofit dedicated to helping needy families.

"We just got so much support. In addition to the tips, we had people just coming up to us on the street and giving us money," Blumberg said. "I even had a couple of tables that I wasn't helping call me over and give me money."

All the donations, particularly the food and clothing, are especially important now, said Tom Rau, executive director of The Neighbors' Place.

"We're up more than 20 percent in visits. Last year, we would have 50 families come in a day, and this year, we're at 60, and last week we had days with more than 70 families," Rau said.

What is especially heartbreaking, Rau said, is that many of the families coming into the food pantry used to donate.

"It's the people that were laid off. They're struggling to keep things going, and it's really getting scary now," Rau said. "But that's why we have organizations like The Neighbors' Place."

Even though the $800 represents a small portion of the organization's $300,000 annual budget, Blumberg and Marschall's donation makes a big difference.

"You don't have to do $1,000 donations. If you just take that first step and do something like this, it ripples out. A lot of little things add up to one big thing," Rau said.

Blumberg and Marschall just like knowing they were able to help.

"It really was such an easy way to help out," Marschall said.

"It feels great knowing somebody out there is not going to go to bed hungry tonight," Blumberg said.

Mickey's will accept food and coat donations through December.