Needy families in the Hartselle area will again have food for their tables during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season thanks to the generosity of the Hartselle community.

The city’s Day of Caring canned and staple food drive collected 9,334 cans and packages of food on Friday, an increase of 474 cans over the previous year.

Cash donations will be used to purchase turkeys and hams.

Project coordinator Susan Seibert pointed to the outcome of a food drive at ILPEA Industries as an example of how this year’s Day of Caring was able to exceed a goal of 9,000 food items.

The industry’s 100 employees competed as Alabama and Auburn football fans, with human resources manager JoAnne Woodall heading up the Auburn team and quality manager Ken Newton serving as the Alabama team captain.

The challenge was the losing team captain would have to wear the winning team’s colors to work on Nov. 7. Auburn nosed out Alabama as the winner.

The result was big win for needy families as the project netted 1,605 cans of food, an increase of 700 cans over the previous year.

The donated food was taken to The Caring Place where it was sorted and bagged by Bethel Baptist School students as a community service project.

The food will be distributed to families at The Caring Place, Hartselle First United Methodist Church, Hartselle First Church of God and First Assembly of God.

“We’re thankful to everyone who worked and contributed food to make The Day of Caring so successful,” said Virginia Alexander, director of The Caring Place. “We’ve seen a slight increase in demand over the past year and we needed 9,000 food items to get us through the Christmas season.”

She said The Caring Place will begin distribution of the food on Wed., Nov. 6.

“Response this year was very good, from the volunteers who worked hard to get everything set up to the many people who made donations,” said Seibert.

The Day of Caring has become a community project. Helping others who need help is what Hartselle is all about.”