With one year under their belt, the volunteers of the Christian Outreach Alliance food pantry are gearing up for their second Stock the Shelves food drive and fundraiser.

Beginning at 7 a.m. Friday, volunteers at the pantry will be at the facility to accept donations.

“People can just drive up — they’re welcome to just drive through,” said Jacque Johnson, a volunteer at the pantry. “We’ll have volunteers in the parking lot. We can take their money or their canned goods, whatever they want to donate to us. Or if they want to come in and see the facility, they’re welcome to do that as well.”

Johnson said food bank volunteers were happy with the amount of donations the pantry received last year, but they are hoping to do even better this year.

“It went very well. We were really surprised since it was a new fundraiser, and we weren’t too sure what we were doing,” Johnson said. “We collected a lot of canned goods. A lot of the schools had drives and brought their canned goods on that day. We also had a lot of people stop by the pantry to drop off money.”

According to Johnson, the food pantry serves around 250 families a week.

“Some of our clients have been coming for many years, and some of them just come for a few months —just until they get themselves on their feet,” Johnson said. “It’s just good that we’re there to help people when they need it. “

Johnson said she is thankful for the community’s support.

“The community has just been fantastic to us all year long,” Johnson said. “That’s one thing that I like about living in Selma — that the community is a very giving community.”

The food drive will be Friday from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. at 700 J.L. Chestnut Blvd. The pantry will accept canned goods or monetary donations.