AUBURN - It may be hard to believe, but the holiday season is just around the corner.

For Calvary Presbyterian Church and its food pantry this is one of the busiest times of the year.

“We feed a lot of people,” said Nancy Sheffield, a church volunteer and former coordinator of its food pantry. “Especially around the holidays when we do a lot of food baskets and things like that for families in need.”

Sheffield, who several months ago stepped down after 23 years, turning over the coordinator reins to her daughter, Kimberly Cobb, estimated that most months the pantry serves between 100 and 200 families, with those numbers going up this time of year.

For the past 15 years the church's annual rummage sale has been one of the most popular, and ultimately beneficial, of these endeavors.

“It has been a wonderful help,” Sheffield said. “This has always been a very big fundraiser for our food pantry. We do a lot of advertising in the paper and we are always very busy. Already this year we've had a lot of people stop by and we have been very, very busy all day.”

The sale has a loyal and dedicated group of customers that make it a point to visit every year.

“We come here all the time,” said Jean Karlik, of Auburn. “We were having our own garage sale today that was supposed to go until 3 but we ended it a little early today to make sure we got here for this. There are really nice people here and this is a good cause to support.”

Knowing that the sale is for such a worthy cause spurs people to lend their support.

“We try to come out for all the church events in the community,” said Fred Fey, of Auburn. “These are really good people who are working hard to make a difference in their community and I think that is something that is really important to support.”

As visitors walked into the church, numerous tables were spread out with items like books, board games, clothes and household items.

“People from the church make donations,” Sheffield said. “But we get a lot of donations just from people in the community who want to help out. I think people know that this is all going towards the food pantry and is going to help feed people.”

But the dedication people feel to the food pantry extends to lending a hand in other ways, as well.

Supporter “Grandpa” Bill Bolha donated his time making chili. Numerous other volunteers have spent time making baked goods.

“We've received so much support form all our volunteers,” Sheffield said. “We have 35 or 40 food pantry volunteers and so many of them have helped with this; we really couldn't do it without all of their support.”

For the past two years, the pantry has also received support from Wal-Mart.

“They have helped us with matching funds,” Sheffield said. “They help out and do a lot in the community and they have been a big help to us, especially with Thanksgiving coming up their support is a big help and so is the support of all the people who come out for this sale.”

If you go

What: Calvary Presbyterian Church food pantry rummage sale

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today, Saturday, Sept. 29

Where: 90 Franklin St., Auburn

Also: Along with the rummage sale items, chili, baked good, coffee and apple cider will also be available all day