The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma packed its one billionth meal on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at a ceremony at the organization's headquarters in Oklahoma City.

The organization now serves 53 counties in central and western Oklahoma. Employees, donors, partners and other community members filled the food bank's headquarters for the event, and the Oklahoma City Thunder made a surprise appearance, KOKH reported.

Workers loaded that milestone meal onto a truck and delivered it to a person in need as the crowd cheered, according to KOCO.

"When we realized we were getting close to this milestone, we truly couldn't believe it because it just seemed so unfathomable," Stacy Dykstra, CEO of the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, told KFOR.

The need is real. Lydia Nightingale, chair of the food bank's board of directors, said each meal represents children who can concentrate on school, seniors with greater peace of mind and families with a little more breathing room, according to KOCO.

The Oklahoma City Thunder Community Foundation donated $25,000 at the ceremony, equivalent to 75,000 meals. Erin Oldfield, executive director of the Thunder Community Foundation, told KOCO the gift reflects the organization's broader mission. "We're bigger than basketball. Our impact goes far beyond the court," Oldfield said.

The celebration comes at a difficult time for food assistance in Oklahoma. About 144,180 Oklahomans who had been receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits lost that aid over the past year, a decline of more than 20%, KFOR reported, citing USDA data.

The food bank said the milestone and donation arrive as Oklahoma faces the highest rate of child food insecurity in the nation, according to KOKH. In a separate report in September, the food bank cited Feeding America data showing the state's child food insecurity rate at 27.3%, with more than 263,000 children affected statewide.

The Regional Food Bank was founded on May 15, 1980, by a group of Oklahoma City citizens led by Rodney Bivens, according to the organization's history page. Its first location was a 10,000-square-foot warehouse in what is now Scissortail Park.

Dykstra said the pace of the food bank's work is accelerating. "At the rate we're going, it will not take another 46 years to get to two billion meals, that's for sure," she told KOCO.