Last week, the Christian Outreach Alliance Food Pantry held its annual Stock the Shelves campaign, and the Selma and Dallas County community helped them do just that.

Volunteers were out early Friday morning awaiting donations of canned goods and money to help purchase food. Several members of the Dallas County High School Beta Club also pitched in to help carry in heavy boxes and count the cans.

Organizer Nancy Bennett said last week more than 3,500 cans were collected, which weighed in at an estimated 3,270 pounds of food.

Bennett said the food pantry also raised a couple thousand dollars in cash donations, which she said would go a long way in helping buy food in bulk.

We’re glad to see the campaign was a success, but we hope to see people continue to give back to the food pantry, especially as the holidays get closer. November is already here, and before we know it, Thanksgiving will be come and gone and Christmas will be here.

The food pantry serves a total of 1,337 people, which make up 644 families. The majority of the people the pantry serves are either under the age of 18 or older than 59.

We’re glad so many people donated canned goods or even money to help the food pantry. It relies only on fundraisers and does not receive any federal or state funding. It is also run by volunteers. We appreciate the work they do, and we’re sure the people they serve certainly do as well.