DECATUR, Ala. - Barrels of Love collects thousands of pounds of food for Morgan County residents every year.
The collection will come to a close Friday, March 2 and are still in major need of donations.
For the seventh year, volunteers will stock empty shelves of food pantries around Morgan County.
2017 was the biggest year yet -- collecting more than 60,000 non-perishable items.
This year, they're looking to surpass last year's amount.
"This year we were really wanting to shoot for 75,000 because there's such a great need in our community," said volunteer, Joe Holmes. "People don't realize that we have so many hungry folks here in Morgan County and especially kids. We have one out of three or four kids that go to bed hungry each night."
Select businesses around Morgan County are using barrels to collect items that will help stock the pantries of Salvation Army, the Committee on Church Cooperation, and the backpack programs for Decatur City and Morgan County schools.
"We have holiday can food drives and those are great, but those items are gone after the first few weeks of the month," said Holmes.
Holmes says he hopes Barrels of Love can help stock pantries through spring and summer.