Members at Fellowship Community Church, with campuses in Salem and North Roanoke County, did their part to help folks in need over the weekend of Jan. 26.

After a capital campaign, called “Until the Whole World Hears,” held in Fall of 2011, the church was able to give $10,000 back to the members at both campuses. Envelopes with $10 each were distributed to 1,000 church members with the intent that the money would be used to purchase donations for the local food pantry (Salem Food Pantry for the Salem campus and Botetourt Food Pantry for the North Roanoke County campus) or to “go and find a creative way to be a blessing to others,” according to Kelli Moore, Interim Missions Director at Fellowship Community Church.

“Fellowship arranged for trucks to be located outside of local grocery stores near both campuses where families flooded the marketplace in search of canned goods and boxed foods,” Moore wrote in an email last week. “Several families not only donated food far in excess of the $10 provided, but they also turned over the $10 to the food pantries as well. Approximately 20 volunteers unloaded the trucks on Sunday, Jan. 27, at both the Salem Food Pantry and the Botetourt Food Pantry with donations exceeding 2.42 tons. Salem Food Pantry workers said that the Fellowship Community Church drive is one of the biggest of the year.”

From this month’s newsletter from the Salem Food Pantry:

“In-kind donations are a huge part of the Pantry budget. Last year we gave away $504,887.46 worth of groceries. That works out to be about $42,000 a month in food. Over half of the food we give away comes from in-kind donations like the one from Fellowship Community Church.”

Fellowship Community Church is located at 1226 Red Lane Ext. in Salem and 7210 Williamson Road in Roanoke. For more information about FCC, click here. For more information about the Salem Food Pantry, click here.