SELMA — Each brown bag volunteer George Webb packs means one less person who will worry about food for a week.

“I’m pretty well off,” Webb said. “A lot of people are worse off than I am, but this is a way I can give those people a little lift.”

The Selma Area Food Bank provides between 200 and 300 bags of groceries to churches in Selma and Dallas County each month with the Brown Bag program.

“We get food to the people who can’t get to the agencies or the pantries to pick up food,” said J.D. Parks, executive director of the Selma Area Food Bank.

Volunteers packed 264 bags Tuesday, each with items such as kidney beans, peaches, tomatoes, cereal, crackers, soup, and lima beans. Each bag weighs about 18 pounds and costs $1.61 per pound wholesale, a total of $28.80 per bag.

Abundant Life Center Apolistic Church, Alabama Avenue Church of God, Catholic Social Ministries, Mt. Nebo Baptist Church, New Shiloh Baptist Church, Sardis Churches Unity Fellowship, Salem Primitive Baptist Church and Tate’s Chapel CME Church in Minter will pick up the bags for this month.

Bags are free to the churches and recipients because the food bank uses a portion of an anonymous grant to fund the project. The project began at least 10 years ago.

The Food Bank opened in 1993 and serves Dallas, Marengo, Perry and Wilcox counties.