FOLEY, Ala. — Claude and Ellen Steele of Foley can be found Thursday mornings at the Christian Service Center in Gulf Shores, working at the food pantry.

“There are people who do lots more than us,” said Ellen.

Still, the Steeles have been working at the pantry for the past four years, filling food baskets, getting items for people with special needs and making the order small enough so people who come to the center on foot or by bicycle can manage the load.

“We have a number of baskets prepared,” explained Ellen, pointing out that perishables are added at the last minute.

“We keep the shelves stocked, too,” she said, noting the pantry regularly receives donations from many area businesses.

“They are very generous,” says Claude.

Ellen says that the usual plan is to give a family a week’s worth of food.

“It’s a wonderful organization,” she said. She added that Claude often helps families out to their car.

“I really don’t want to talk about that,” said Claude, blinking rapidly.

The couple met while Claude was serving with the Air Force. He was an aircraft mechanic.

“It was a blind date,” said Claude.

“My roommate set it up,” said Ellen. It was 1967, in Atmore, and the couple almost never met.

“My roommate and her boyfriend had a fight and canceled their date,” explained Ellen. Ellen and Claude went on their date, which led to another, and another. Soon, Ellen confided to her roommate that, “I was going to marry him.”

The couple was married 15 months after their blind date.

Claude left the Air Force and Ellen left her job approving loan applications at General Motors Acceptance Corp., and eventually moved to north Louisiana to run a family dairy farm.

“We quickly realized that this was not the life for us,” said Ellen.

“No it was not the life for a city boy,” agreed Claude. He eventually went to work for John Deere.

Ellen stayed home and raised the couple’s sons, Chad and Scott. She started as a temporary employee for the Federal Land Bank and left more than 30 years later an a vice-president administrating nine offices.

But as Claude says, the couple wanted to “come back to South Alabama.”

They settled in Foley and learned of the CSC when they were members of the Orange Beach United Methodist Church. They are now members of Foley United Methodist Church.

“It was an outreach project,” said Ellen” “It’s a hand up so I thought I would volunteer. What a great organization.”

“She dragged me into it,” joked Claude. “No, we get much more than we give out.”

“The people are so appreciative,” said Ellen. “You see the children who are there through no fault of their own, or even their parents.”

When not at CSS, Claude likes to take a boat out in the area waters and Ellen likes to “spoil the grandchildren.” She also likes to rock paint.

The couple has three grandchildren, Cullen, Avery and Cooper, who live in Hoover, Ala.

“We keeps the roads hot between here and there,” said Ellen.

The couple has volunteered their time in the past to Share the Beach, patrolling a section of beach to watch over nesting sea turtles. They could not do that this year, however, due to an illness of Claude’s, but they hope to resume next year.

Ellen sports a big grin when talking of seeing sea turtles hatch.

“It’s awesome,” she says.

Claude talks of having to shine a red light at the baby turtles to move them away from bright lights buildings on the beach often have to guide them toward the ocean.

Last year, the couple helped dig up nests and shipped them to Florida to escape the oil spill.

“It will be interesting (to see if they come to Alabama) 10 years from now. At least they were saved,” Ellen said.