SYLACAUGA — The needs of low-income people are ever present but are often the most noticeable around the Christmas holiday season.

Sylacauga’s Care House is constantly aware of those needs, and director Earl Lewis the response to this year’s Christmas Basket program was the largest he could remember in his 12 years at the local charity.

“We went over 500 people today,” Lewis said. “That’s the most we’ve served by a long shot. I’m sure we’ll have a few stragglers come in tomorrow, and we’ll end up with well over 500 people served.”

Lewis estimated last year’s Christmas Basket program served around 400 people.

“I don’t think I’m telling anyone anything they don’t know, but there’s a big need around this area,” Lewis said.

The Christmas Basket program is a large-scale project where local organizations donate food for the Care House to organize and distribute at the First Presbyterian Church of Sylacauga’s Perryman Fellowship Hall.

This year a large and anxious crowd waited for their food baskets in a long line during a drizzly Tuesday morning.

After the long process of collecting the food, Care House volunteers and numerous volunteers from the community spent three days moving the food over to the church, organizing the Christmas baskets and distributing them.

“Over the course of the three days we may have had over 170 volunteers, and I may be underestimating that,” Lewis said.

The Care House itself has a limited number of volunteers, so all the extra help was needed and appreciated, according to Lewis.

A group from First United Methodist Church of Sylacauga helped move the food over to the fellowship hall. Volunteers from Knollwood Christian School and a local home school group also provided a large number of volunteers.

Lewis said the Christmas Basket program has been going on for approximately 20 years and every year it seemed to grow a little, but this year it grew by a lot.