With clothes prices continuing to rise and a new school year recently started, a local church took action to help the community with a clothes giveaway.

Balm of Gilead Missionary Baptist Church, located at 3731 White Marsh Road, gave back to the community by providing free clothes on Sept. 22. Church members teamed up on the corner of East Washington and Beech streets. The giveaway took place from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Balm of Gilead Pastor A.S. Hall, Sr. said the event was designed as an outreach.

“We wanted to go outside the walls of the church and give back to the community,” Hall said. “It is important to be more than just a church and go out and love others. The Balm wants to provide love for the community with no strings attached.”

Johnnie Turner, associated pastor at the church, was also involved with this event.

“We had volunteers from the church community helping with the event,” Turner said. “Along with providing free clothes and great music that could be heard blocks away, we also gave away free popcorn, free candy apples, free Bibles, literature, free school supplies, free toys, free drinks and other snacks.”

It was the first such event for the 138-year-old church, Hall said, but the church members “responded in a unified way to serve, to give and to love.”

“We were able to help hundreds of people in the Suffolk community,” Hall said. “Just to see individuals leaving with boxes and bags of clothes for their family was priceless.”